Yes, I can design and build my own designs. But the game is unplayable BECAUSE the AI can't/won't. The biggest ship I've seen AI build is an escort of 20 HP's. That is ridiculous. I play on tough settings, and all AI has is 8HP fighters and 12 HP heavy fighters and defenders. Obviously I can simply walk onto these planets using any larger ship.

Simply put, I have bought and downloaded a space strategy game without ships -.. This is serious and I'm looking forward to fast reaction.

You can see how people might become confused, PeletierH, when you make statements that contradict each other.

Let me make sure I understand your issue sufficiently:

1. You have the default ships, not "none" as the title of your post states.

2. The AI is not building adequate ships for the difficulty level you selected.

3. You do not care to make ships of your own that are functional as that "takes time" and they would not by default "look cool." You believe that should be done for you upon upgrading any technology.

Are all those points accurately described?

If so, point 2 sounds like a bug report. Point 3 is more of a suggestion and point 1 should inform your title choice.

Point 2 was also your most constructive assertion here. The rest is really window-dressing.

If you refuse to help yourself out of your supposed untenable position by designing your own ships while a solution is pondered, and you in fact decide to insult the developers, do you expect the community to somehow support you? Do you expect the developers to consider you more reasonable because you insulted them and repeatedly thrust a suggestion in their faces despite attempts by the community to help you with your issue?

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 think you just lost all support and sympathy here...

You're only a victim of your own assumptions. It's like you decided to buy a "COMPUTER" and are now upset that it is a mac and not a PC, simply because you didn't pay attention to what you were buying. If you had done any research whatsoever you would have known before purchase that this game very much revolves around creating your own ships. Go whine somewhere else.

I think the issue is that we should see more core ships beyond the Star Fury and the transport. There are more core ships, I understand, and them not showing up is a sign that the program is not working the way that it is supposed to. I have designed ships, but I think the game was built so that one does not have to. I have done a great dal of research, and nothing else shows up.

There aren't that many pre-built core ships and each one requires a specific set of technologies.

The game was designed with the assumption that the player would be generally designing their own ships.

The confusion here is that this is being presented as a "bug" in the game. 

The hulls were designed so that you can put just components on them and it'll still look nice (certainly nicer than GalCiv I). 

Designing your own ships is a key element of the game.

There aren't that many pre-built core ships and each one requires a specific set of technologies.

What some have been referring to is the missing core ships such as the Sniper and Missile Boat, even when the required technologies have been researched already. I reported this on page one of the Glitch report thread and also an update to it on page five I believe it was. I still haven't figured out what is causing it though (sandbox games).

On a side note, I never use the core ships except for the first few turns. The problem arises when people who don't want to build custom ships are made aware of the prerequisite techs for core ships, then become frustrated when those core ships don't show up in the shipyard after tech completion.

Summary: Using the ctrl-shift-R cheat unlocks all of the core ships. Researching the required techs in a sandbox game without cheating doesn't unlock some of the core ships. Possible causes are incorrect tech tree descriptions, broken tree, other?

For those missing core ships...have you researched "Sensors"? Using the Galactopedia I noticed that most of the core ships all require sensors. In my current game I only had the Star Fury (was up to Plasma I and Harpoon missles). But I never researched that lowly tech sensors. So I researched it (took me just 2 turns). Immediately about half a dozen core ships showed up including the Phoenix, Corvette and Cruiser.

So check that you've researched Sensors. Also a side note that most core ships also require general life support or better so be sure to reserach up that tree as well. You can check it for yourself in the Galctopedia.

Now I've got to go back and obsolete all those core designs I don't want or need.

Awesome, thanks. Going to go check that right now.

If that fixes things, I will go update my report in the Glitch thread.

UPDATE:

Spent about 2 hours going through over half the tech treeon a sandbox game. I could get most of the core ships to show up except for these three, which are broken somehow still:

Missile Boat
Sniper
Star Raider

I think the issue is that we should see more core ships beyond the Star Fury and the transport. There are more core ships, I understand, and them not showing up is a sign that the program is not working the way that it is supposed to.

EXACTLY. How hard it is to understand this issue , and respond to it?
If the core ships are not coming up, when they should, it's a bug. Period.
I do not understand how TELLING ME I need to design my own ships helps to solve the MISSING CORE SHIPS bug.
Thus I got provoked, and somewhat angry.

I really appreciate the efforts of the people who in fact tried to help me.
I dont appreciate when someone tells me I have to design my own ships.
There are supposed to be more core ships, but they ARE NOT SHOWING.

Next time when I have time to play this game, I'm gonna take several screenshots, post them, and my save game files.
If someone then tells me it's my fault that the core ships ain't showing up, he must be mentally ill somehow, or I am missing something, which I will then gladly admit. I can't believe someone accused me of buying a wrong product.. comparing this to PC vs Mac.. here is a more relevant comparison for you, dude: Buy a PC from us, it comes with some core components, and if one core component ain't working, don't worry, we have this ultra cool tool for you so you can design your own component.. You are in fact required to do this.. Enjoy! Thanks for shopping in our PC store

Sounds like the sensors may have been it. Glad that worked out.

Just listing the requirements just in case for the 3 ships.

Missile Boat - Tiny hull, Stinger II, Sensors, Basic Support
I have seen the missle boat before, but not in most games.

Sniper - Tiny hull, Railgun MK III, Sensors, Basic Support
Again, I've seen it but not every game.

I do have a theory: It seems there are 3 "starting" ships. The two above plus the Star Fury (beam). I usually go up the beam tree first and thus get the Fury. I'm wondering if only the first one of these three that you qualify for is the only one you'll see?

Star Raider - Large hull, Titanium Armor, Railgun MK III
I note in the description of the ship is that it's a pirate ship. Very possible that this ship is only available to pirates and thus why it doesn't appear as a build option.

or I am missing something

We may have tracked it down to the need to research Sensors and Basic Support for most of these ships. Give that a try your next game.

We may have tracked it down to the need to research Sensors and Basic Support for most of these ships. Give that a try your next game.

Well I did a test on the parts, and it seems that even when you have the specified parts in the Galactopedia, you still might need something like Miniturization or other techs that aren't listed. I have never seen the Sniper or Thunder, but can build the Battle Hammer. I can build a cruiser but not the Missle Boat.

Another note when it comes to the Terran ships: The hull appearances don't always match the correct size of the core ship design. If I remember correctly, the Phoenix hull looks like a tiny hull, even though it is a small ship. Also the Battle Axe hull uses a small hull even though it is a medium ship. For those of us that would like to upgrade the core design ships, this is a problem!

We may have tracked it down to the need to research Sensors and Basic Support for most of these ships. Give that a try your next game.

Cool, I'm glad that you are finding answers. Are these ships also present in the tech tree, or are they absent totally, like in my case?
It's also possible that there are somewhat similar symptoms , but different causes for these problems. For example, in my first game on easy level i researched almost everything and never was able to build any other core ship than the inital ones and star fury.
Maybe next game, I literally research all the techs there are, and post a screenshot if all I see is a defender and star fury

I just researched
- Basic support , actually General life support just to be sure
- Sensors
- Basic Miniaturization (and the next one just to be sure)
- Stinger II
- Xeno Industrial Theory

I strongly beleive that I should now receive and to be able to build Missile Boat. Isn't that right? I did not. No otther core ships come up than the inital ones, and star fury. They are not even showing on the tech trees.

The confusion here is that this is being presented as a "bug" in the game.

Are you seriously stating that what I just described is NOT a bug? How can you state that?

Using the ctrl-shift-R cheat unlocks all of the core ships

Not for me.. What could I possibly conclude?

You realize that you have to activate the cheats for them to work?
When you did ctrl-shift-r did it unlock all the techs?

Edited: I activated cheats and all core ships become available when I hit ctrl-shift-R

So there is some in-game bug which prevents them to come up in my game

Ok go to the directory where you installed the game.
Find the file GalCiv2.exe, right click it and create a shortcut.
Right click the shortcut you just made, in Target: you will see c:\game\GalCiv2\GalCiv2.exe
c:\game\ part will probably be different on yours that part doesnt matter, what matters is that you need to add the word cheat at the end, so for mine it looks like c:\games\GalCiv2\GalCiv2.exe cheat
Click apply, now when you run that shortcut cheats will be activated.
Start a new game, make sure you turn off 'tech victory' otherwise you will get all the techs and win the game, when the game is going do the ctrl-shift-r, there will be a ton of pop ups when its all done you should have all techs and therefore all ships.

So there is some in-game bug which prevents them to come up in my game

I do not think so, see when you have all the techs, all the ships show up, so they are there and show up when all required techs are researched. I think the problem is that 'all' the requirements to get a certian ships are not correctly listed and it seems that techs not even related to ships are also required. Example 'xeno industrial theory' has absolutly nothing to do with ships, it doesnt add anything at all to ship construction, yet it is required to unlock ships. For all I know you need 'Xeno banks' to unlock missile boats.
I know you get upset when people tell you you need to make your own ships but it is a requirment of the game. On easy you could win the game with the defualt ships but if you play at any harder levels you will lose every time. What you should do is try to get someone to upload there custom ships and then you can have good ships and not have to build them yourself. I was a little overwhelmed with creating ships at first but once you play around with it for awile it does get pretty easy and you can bang out a half decent ship in 5-10 min.
Or you can lobby stardock to include more core ship designs, but as I have siad in a previous post no two games are alike and you end up creating ships no matter what, if you want to have the most up-to-date ships that is.

Example 'xeno industrial theory' has absolutly nothing to do with ships, it doesnt add anything at all to ship construction, yet it is required to unlock ships. For all I know you need 'Xeno banks' to unlock missile boats. I know you get upset when people tell you you need to make your own ships but it is a requirment of the game

Thanks for your help, Pitiful.
Ok Xeno Ind Theory has nothing to with ships, while Xeno Banks are a requirement for missile boats. I guess the staff in the banks in fact design and produce the missiles.
Isn't it already a bug or a glitch or whatever, that Xeno Ind Theory is listed as a requirement while it is not.
I realize I'm not gaining any sympathy with my whining, but I stick to my point THAT THERE ARE CORE SHIPS missing, or not coming up the way the game is telling me they should come up.

I have a right to my opinion, that this is a bug. Telling me to desing my own ships has nothing to do with core ships bug.

It's like giving an art lover an empty canvas and a bucket of paint instead of selling him a Picasso, and then sticking to the claim that Picasso and your own art is the same thing, and in fact you are required to do your own art

Oh, and by the way. I admit that I was wrong to assume that the missing core ship bug and what I thought was a weak-Ai-Ships-bug are related. But since on my 3rd game ever (including one game of GalCiv 1) I researched well over half the tech tree, and no core ships appeared but the initial ones, and star fury and freighter, and when I designed my own ships, and easily walked over the whole SMALL Map against 5 civs on TOUGH settings, can you really blame me for thinking that the ship building feature is totally bugged ?

I played my 4th game on crippling and it seems that AI is building some sort of force and resistance.

Which of course does not remove the fact that the core ships are still totally bugged, at least on my system.

while Xeno Banks are a requirement for missile boats. I guess the staff in the banks in fact design and produce the missiles.

He was kidding about Xeno Banks.

He was kidding about Xeno Banks.

Nice. I almost researched it to find out.. Good joke.
The community should remember that not everyone wants to become a respected member of their community but that DOES NOT mean he is showing disrespect for the community.
I'm a member of other communities myself and I know new people come and go with questions. Not to mention I came here with the question because I paid for this product and it is not fully working (I assume the core ships were included AND supposed to be working)
Anyone with half a brain can see that I was very respectful to everyone until the Stardock crew start telling me that I NEED to design my own ships, if the core ships are not working the way they are supposed to work.

Few questions to that crew:
- Did you or did you not include a core ship called missile boat in the game with the intention that I can build it?
- What techs are required to build that ship?
- If I research those techs, and still am unable to build the ship, is this a bug or not?
- If it is a bug, are you gonna admit it respectfully, or are you gonna imply to me "we dont care, designing your OWN ships is the key element of this game"?