Immersion Killers

OK, I was just informed by my ten year old son that you can, indeed, be an arms dealer. Apparently, my ships really are the Yugo's of the galaxy.

If there is anything mor humbling than being bested by the computer on Dunce setting...

So, anyway, strike that comment.

I love the game too, but one thing sort of kills the immersion for me. Talking to the other races.

Right after I make a deal/trade with another race, the conversation starts over with a "hello, what can we do for you?" type of phrase. Like they forget that we just got through making a deal. How about some sort of "Hope to talk to you again soon" message that ends the conversation?

As far as the star names... you can mod the list to your heart's content. If you do come up with a good list, you can even post it here for others to admire and use.

right, heres some things you can do.

#1 well, 3rd world is more about lack of education and birth control. But happy=frolicking, miserabale= apathatic. My way of thinking.

#3 c/program files/stardock/totalgaming/galciv2/data.english/stars. Allows you to edit star names. The current names are tributes to things such as Final Fantasy, HHGTTG, famous people etc. (Yes I do realise that betelgeuse is a real system anyway)

#4 Heh, they do. Charges for exploiting slaves, races, 1 trade route max. Evil can have fundamentalist revolutions and lose most of their planets. And if you are evil and at war with a good nation, other good nations join. (This happens when you are the good nation too) while evil nations laugh at you.

#5 Influence means more tourism! mmoneymoneymoney!

#6. Honestly, xml is easy. Heres an example of how to make the Terrans even better at diplomacy.

c/program files/stardock/totalgaming/galciv2/data.english/raceconfig.xml

Ok, first you look down the Terrans bonus list. All the stuff on the race is shown here, and all the numbers can be modded without any problems. Look for (DIPLOMACY)25(/DIPLOMACY)
Right, now change that to (DIPLOMACY)35(/DIPLOMACY)
And save, and start a game. The Terrans have now got a built in diplomacy skill of 35. Anything between the > and the < is changeable. Such as:
(Description)The humans recently joined the interstellar club with the invention of Hyperdrive. They are the diplomats and traders of the galaxy. Though a bit impulsive, they are tougher than they look.(/Description) Is changed to (Description)Humans! they rock! woo! kick some alien scum!(/Description) (Honestly, I don't do this. Example )
This is what will show in the in-game description of the Terran Alliance now.

Hope these help
EDIT: description etc in the proper standard doesnt work. Anything thats about changing the files, change the ( to a <

approval is tied to popgrowth because it adds a sting to keeping your population somewhere between rioting and loaded up on Soma. There are actually bonus's at 100% and 75% I believe, but i'm not entirely certain if the 75% is popgrowth off the top of my head. Linking it to food production or similar would have the unfortunate effect of making it incredibly easy to populate a planet. It's pretty good being linked to approval .

I sell ships all the time to the AI, your right about them just not liking yours . Either your asking for too much or your ship really does kinda suck. Also the AI under the more recent 1.1 BETA patches will place more value on them when it needs them badly due to a war that is actually hurting it.

Star names are easily modable if you want to add more, I think it's even a .txt file that contains them instead of a .xml one. I was also under the impression that most stars have interesting names like M124QLR and other memorable things that roll off the tongue.

A lot of the UP sanctions really do hurt evil races a lot, you can easily not notice them if your not doing much with trade and starbases and such however. Trade and starbases are pretty huge economy boosting (among other things) things, but easily ignored or not well used until a bit more experience is gained by new players. It's also possible you just havent played long enough to see many of those UP issues come up .

Influence is a useful thing to buy, it increases the number of votes you get in the UP, can help you win an influence victory, a few other things, and is something you can squeeze out of a puppet state AI you are propping up with ships and such without crippling their economy in some way. Its especially useful if you just want to keep them fighting another AI .

Influence is a great "filler" trade item.

Playing a high diplomacy race--the sort that can sell vacuum to astronauts--you trade stuff to the AI (starbases, ships, techs, BCs) and then add some of their influence to the mix. Its never much. 2500 here, 10k there, etc. It will, however, matter for the cultural victory (every bit you siphon from them to you adds to your percentage).

Honestly, xml is easy. Heres an example of how to make the Terrans even better at diplomacy. c/program files/stardock/totalgaming/galciv2/data.english/raceconfig.xml Ok, first you look down the Terrans bonus list. All the stuff on the race is shown here, and all the numbers can be modded without any problems. Look for (DIPLOMACY)25(/DIPLOMACY) Right, now change that to (DIPLOMACY)35(/DIPLOMACY)

It's easy indeed, if you know it and have some insight into endless codes/XML. But since 3/4 of the people dont know how to, it's not easy. And I can imagine that when I just wish to add a description or change a stat, it takes rather long to search pages and pages for the right line of text to change. Not to mention is you do something wrong, you screw your whole game.

On the diplomacy/black market/UP thing. I tottally agree. I feel the UP is rather useless. You nearly always get the same things over and over and they don't really go with what's actually happening inside the galaxy.

Also whenever you sell/give the AI ships they will not use them. Once a civ was near destruction, only having it's home planet left. So I gave/sold it a bunch of heavily armed cruisers, and they didnt ever as much as MOVE them!

6) Why not custom races for all? I haven't played the beta yet, so maybe it's being addressed already, but I'd love to customize all the races. tweak a few settings, upload a new picture. A lot easier than diving into a crash course on XML to mod the game so I can pit the humans and cylons against one another. I want to play, not program

Yes, I agree. This was touched upon by Brad in an interview - he stated the option to add all custom races would be in the expansion.

The tactical combat kills it for me.. well it's nice to see my ships but the action and special effects are..I know it's not bad for a 4X game consider most 4x game have amature graphics, but why is that? Anyway, now GC2 is a best selling mainstream game maybe in GC3, SD will have the budget to have top of the line graphics too. Imagine, the same game but with tactical and ground combat like those in Star Wars Empire at War or Nexus!

I'll pay 200 bucks or more for a game like that.. and end up saving money cuz it'll probably be my only entertainment for a very long time

Here is the thing, if I remember from GC1 clearly, your population isn't your 'actual' physical population on the planet, but those who are willing to pay taxes, that's where the number comes from. So... higher approval generally means you're doing a better job, and the economy is stronger so that more people are willing to pay taxes. If you have a dismal growth rate, you'll probably have a dismal approval rate as well, and hence, much slower 'population' growth.

This AI debate that just rages on and on is a hoot. Seems that some gamers feel that this game just isn't perfect unless their playing against IBM's Big Blue or R2D2 or HAL or that gay robot from Lost In Space...I could go on and on but you get the point I hope. This is a very nteresting game thats bound to evolve and thats all I ask or expect from my games in 2006. Now 2106 ...thats a different story.

>Also whenever you sell/give the AI ships they will not use them. Once a civ was near destruction, only having it's home >planet left. So I gave/sold it a bunch of heavily armed cruisers, and they didnt ever as much as MOVE them!

What level of difficulty were you were playing?

In a 'normal' difficulty game I helped to preserve the Korx from being wiped out by Arceans by selling them a few of my "lower echelon" units an 8-energy, 4-shield, 8-move medium fighter. There strongest units were 2-energy, 0-shield, 2-move small fighters at the time. The 3 units basically turned the whole war around since the Arcean units were about half my fighter's strenght. The AI actually used the higher mobility of the offered to target the transports, much like a human would do. Sure it didnt create a fleet with the fighters but I think it had more to do with a lack of logistics and the fact that it was more productive to use the ships individually than in a fleet since it could protect more territory with 3 ships than one fleet.

The one wierd decision on the AI's part is that when I sold the ships, I made sure they were in enemy territory, near a transport rally point. Instead of dispatching the enemy transports right away, the Korx AI brought its newly purchased ships into it's own territory, 4 sectors away... Not the smartest use of those ships but then, it was only a normal AI as stated earlier.

And one more thing, if your ships arent Yugos, the AI will love to buy them off you, much like it will sell you any of its ships if you have the credits or the technology. In my last game, I was able to amass a group of 8 fighters from 2 friendly AI after having war declared on me by a greedy opponent who noticed that while I controlled have a large map by influence, I only 10 constructors and flagship... Within 10 turns the war was over because all his transports were gone . Incidentally, this comeback could not have happened without tech trading.

I like #6... alot.. i am all for it...

also more skins for the planets... I want each game to be about a colonization of a newly discovered quadrant... not the same one.. over and over...

more jewlery and a few generic AI's we could attach to the minors and custom

There was a bug at one stage (dont know if it is fixed yet) where the ai ignored any ships you sold/gave them untill you saved and reloaded the game.

The UP is about as useless as the UN. ok snarky comments aside.

3) Stars.txt in your \data\english folder (or whatever your language version is) change the names and save the file.

5) I agree sort of. You'd need to say BUY as much IP as you can, but I don't even think thats worthwhile. You'd be best off building embassys and making your own.

6) You can customize the races thru modding.

And I can imagine that when I just wish to add a description or change a stat, it takes rather long to search pages and pages for the right line of text to change

Well, the stat changing is very clearly laid out, like it's surrounded by the name of the stat, it's not much to scroll, and whatever you chang is changed.
ctrl+f is your friend when searching through craploads of data. I remember wanting to add some more HHGttG quotes, and open up descriptions.xml. ctrl+f what I want, and I'm there. TBH, I started this with no real knowledge of .xml, and I can mod fine. Takes about ten mins to learn, and now I mod rather than customise my races, because I like the built in bonuses, but also using some spare points.

Thanks, guys, great feedback. I thought there might be a simple list buried somewhere of star names, but after wasting a few hours of my life grappling with Civ IV's poorly documented and buggy modmaking, I have sort of soured on the whole modding idea. Perhaps more inspired souls than I will eventually craft a "real galaxy" map...that might be interesting.

I still can't find the link to that great 3D software virtual tour of the galaxy (kinda like Google Earth, only MUCH bigger), but I did find this link, which looks informative, for those wishing to build a real galaxy:


Link

Fritz maybe you mean http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

That's it! Thanks. Yes, I highly recommend it to anyone with the smallest interest in space.

The other link I listed has some great stuff, too, especially for those who'd like to make their own custom maps (assuming that is possible).