Beta 1.1 Eve

A preview of what is in v1.1 beta

from JoeUser Forums

We plan to release 1.1 this week which means between tomorrow and Sunday. ;)

Note to gamers: BETA means it's going to be buggy. I played a long game tonight and it was quite buggy. Hopefully we'll get them straightened out tomorrow. Most of the bugs revolve around the auto pilot line drawing so we may just take that out for the beta and keep working on it. It wasn't a hugely requested option anyway.

The New options:

People are going to like those. But realistically, I find the game lacking without tech trading. I've spent a week playing with it and without trading tech, you really lose something.  I rewrote how the AI trades tech so that it's pickier with each other but at least people have the option.  Don't get me wrong, it is a nice change of pace.

I actually MUCH more like the blind exploration feature. This is where you can't see the other players in the game with the influence mini-map option until you've explored the territory they're in.

The two new features here totally rock and I think if we added nothing else to 1.1, would be the most significant in terms of expanding the replayability. You now have the option to simply select N players and have it pick them out. The randomize intelligence lets you pick a overall difficulty and the game will randomize up the intelligence to fit that so that some civs are smarter than others.

But THIS BELOW will almost certainly be the most popular new feature:

Way m ore space to design your ships, rotateable parts, able to hide parts, it's just much better overall. You can even go back and rotate/resize after something's been placed.

This is the auto pilot line feature. It's pretty cool and very useful in large maps. It's a bit buggy right now though. I'm sure they'll get it fixed soon.

You can now tell what area of effect a starbase will have before you build it.

See how you only see their influence based on what you've explored. So you can't easily tell how vast someone's empire is. The fun factor of this is much higher than I thought it would be.

There's a ton of other features, we'll have a full log of it before we go up.

43,107 views 28 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Wow.

I'm going to have to wrap up my current war quickly or abandon it altogether. To see these features implemented so quickly is just incredible. Hats off to you guys.

I may have missed this, but is there going to be a HP cap implemented in 1.1?
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Whoa... the ship design screen improvement is nice. I like the change a lot. I was just waiting for the AI improvements, but this was a decent surpise.


One question in regards to blind exploration though:
Has there been any work done on the map generation routines? I mean, has the starting location/worlds been balanced out so that each race has a decent chance? I love the idea of blind exploration, but I find myself using ctrl-n alot to keep the AI spaced apart so that each for them have a decent chance. Me, I can usually get by, but a trap AI is often just a sitting duck waiting to die. Oh, and no precursor tech/manufacturing center bonuses on homeworlds too... those things gives crazy advantages.
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Awsome Very Awsome , Very worth every penny i paid for this game that the game company actually cares about thier people. ( Ea sports could learn alot from you guys)
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
See how you only see their influence based on what you've explored. So you can't easily tell how vast someone's empire is. The fun factor of this is much higher than I thought it would be.


How is the AI dealing with this, do the AI's know where the players influence is without exploring first?

How about starbase resources, does the AI need to explore first like human player?
I sometimes get the idea that like anomalies and auto explore the AI is able to find these resources without knowing where they are (no proof, just a feeling)

Auto pilot looks like a very usefull tool, even with the current buggy state i would love to see this in the Beta

Seeing where a starbase influence will be is also very very usefull, placed some starbases in the past and discovering i have 1 cm (on screen ) to short to get some planet to benefit. GRGR

Looks like a great job once again (we are getting used to it)
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is so cool and good for this game!

1.1 patch really puts in place everything that was missing from the original version. Constructor showing star base effect area, what a time and frustration saver!

The new auto pilot line feature is more important than you give credit Brad. I think it´s just something that people did not think about. When it´s implemented it will be huge time save. How many hours I have spent just going my ships one by one to check where they are exactly going. Now I won´t have to , thanks!

And your absolutely right about the randomizing giving the game more life. Too many times I have been "cherry picking" my opponents, now with new blind fold options the game will have more suprises.

ps. Could you Brad tell me what Interface options your using, those screen shots look so nice. I guess background star density at maximum 5000 , but background nebula number I cannot guess.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Way m ore space to design your ships, rotateable parts, able to hide parts, it's just much better overall. You can even go back and rotate/resize after something's been placed.

Squeeeeee!!!!

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Awesome, Brad (and team, of course!).

Thanks for all that'll be in the next version!
I hope a "randomize alignments" checkbox will join the new setup options in the near future, I found that to be much fun in GC1 (and finally people will see all the nice alternative texts as well! ).
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Why be surprised by "exploring is cool"? It's one of the 4 X's, and unlike Civ which has terrian, galciv was lacking in itt. Anomlies have it somewhat, but they run out after the first year of gametime.

Idea: There should be ethics choices when exploring anolmies, not just planets. Along the line of "The captain of Survay Ship 1045 has been offered marragie to a green alterian slave. Does he accept the offer?" and other Star trekenin gags. You could tie it in to effecting the diplomacy of the majors or minors (or keep it to minors only). Mabye you raise the alterian diplomacy, but lose influence with the Torians. .
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
First, the blind exploration is the system I ma used to and I think that it'sa natural for a space exploration game. I hope that you have noted that using blind exploration could add a new and very exciting dimension to espionage where espionage outcomes could be learning about the extent of an empire as well as the location and extent of the empires that the espionage victim has contact with on a gradual basis, of course.

Haven't had a chance to read all the comments; so, maybe this has been mentioned.

Good hob you guys.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Anomlies have it somewhat, but they run out after the first year of gametime.


That's something I'd like to be changed. Turn anomalies into "come and go" things, randomly appearing on the map, dissapearing again if not farmed soon enough.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i'd like allied AIs to share their fog of war, same for AIs on which i got advanced espionage level (and maybe just see their planets without fog of war on high espionage)
are there any plans to do that?
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Who needs Autopilot lines anyway. I know where my ships are going. A good leader knows where his ships are going! However, having the starbase range highlighted before you use a constructor is a must. Anyway, thanks for the hard work
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Great news! You guys doing an awesome job there. I wish your game was reviewed once more after the final 1.1 is out. Eventually you'll get even 100.1 out 100 points

Avatar Draginol wrote: So you can't easily tell how vast someone's empire is.


Right now one can see in the Diplo screen how many planets / ships the AI has. Will you in blind exploration mode only see the planets and ships you encountered?
I mean if e.g. an AI scout comes near your planets and you get to the Diplo screen, you won't see all of his stuff listed then? I hope so

Thanks for the fast and major improvements on the game. Hopefully the final V1.1 will be out soon, so you and the team can go on a hard earned vacation
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
OMG auto pilot lines will change my life, thanks !

About anomalies, it would be really COOL to let us choose how to use them: for example showing them to your people as a trophee to increase their morale (such discoveries make people dream) or using them as a scientific purpose to boost research, etc. Add to that the "come and go" feature of Jeda and you can have some really interesting gameplay.

Keep the good work guys
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The new ship design does look awesome. I'm afraid of having overcrowded auto-pilot-path maps though.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Great job. Some thoughts:

1) More points on metaverse for "blind exploration" I'm not a big metaverse player, but I know others are, so this option greatly increases difficulty of play (as ctrl-n becomes nearly pointless). I'm all for it, but throw in some more points.

2) I agree with Kalin that starting positions need to be more balanced, and that homeworlds shouldn't have bonus tiles (this way, spamming ctrl-n becomes totally strategically worthless, which is a good thing).
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I noticed that the picture with the new Shipyard has a toolbar on top. How do you play in a window mode like that? (I already know about the " w-inside-the-properties" way of doing it)
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Awesome. Cant wait to try this out.

The no tech trading was one of my most wanted features. I will say though that I would like to have a middle thing between free tech trading. I am all for options.

2 Options mentioned here in the forum that I think are good and relativly easy to implement

1. Instead of tech trading have blueprint trading that gives a 50% cost rebate on a tech.
- Will stop the trade tech, sell tech, trade tech...
- Slow down the tech race
- You still can get diversification as all still wont research the same.
- Create small icon on tech tree that shows you have the blueprint

This option would work like the existing tech trading so no change in AI trading algorithms, instead of getting the tech
the system sets a flag on the traded tech that it has blueprint and reduces the cost of the tech. The AI can still value the tech the same or an adjutsment to of the AI value thats up to balancing.

When spies get techs, the same thing you just get blueprint.

Blueprints are not tradeable.

Other option.

2. Only Tech Trade with Alliances, Simply you can only trade when in Alliance.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"Most of the bugs revolve around the auto pilot line drawing so we may just take that out for the beta and keep working on it. It wasn't a hugely requested option anyway."

I would just like to lobby for the autopilot line drawing as for me it would be a big help...I didn't request it before and then when I saw it was going into 1.1 I never felt like I needed to say anything but I don't want Stardock to get the impression that it isn't a hugley requested option
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow. just wow. Can't believe you can really add all that in and can't wait to get my hands on it.
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Suggestion for 1.2 : minimap that follows the main screen.
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
But realistically, I find the game lacking without tech trading. I've spent a week playing with it and without trading tech, you really lose something.


Yeah, you lose a crutch....one that basically insures that you are never poor during the game

There have been COUNTLESS suggestions on the forums (some even in post #18 of this thread) on ways to keep tech trading in the game, without having the 'Free Money' situation that now exists in the Tech Trade game.

I am confident that the Stardock crew will be able to come up with a 'middle ground' to satisfy everyone
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Query regarding:
"
You now have the option to simply select N players and have it pick them out. The randomize intelligence lets you pick a overall difficulty and the game will randomize up the intelligence to fit that so that some civs are smarter than others.
"

Does this only randomize the intelligence (that is, the AI routines available), or does it also randomize the bonus/penalty to economy that you get with the different intelligence levels?

Thanks!
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
For those of you who don't like the starting positions, you REALLY need to not use "Tight Clusters". Huge and Gigantic galaxies on Tight clusters rarely start off with good starting positions. Set it to "Loose Clusters", and you'll be much happier, I guarantee. The Tight Clusters option is like playing Archipelago maps in the Civ series.

I wonder whether the clustering algorithm takes into account the size of the galaxy enough. The amount of empty space you can have with Tight clusters in a Huge/Gigantic galaxy is pretty mind boggling.
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Everything in 1.1 looks like it'll rock and I'm excited about all of it, but no matter how cool ship design is enhancements to the ship design feature are at the bottom of my list. I'm far more concerned with things that affect the AI and gameplay, like AI improvements/changes, starbase changes, other changes to gameplay like economic changes and logistics changes, and the ability to randomize opponents at launch (simple but highly desired).