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Planetary models and the space

from GalCiv2 Forums
I tried out the demo. I think the game is brilliant, refreshing and new in it's gameplay. This consept of rolling 2D universe in a n exploration game is good with the floating planets. However the illusion of reality is seriously severed by these factors:

1. The space should be streched in the scale of x 10, including all the distances between planets, moons and stars. Jupiter is really very far away from the inner solar system. The exploration needs to be so that planets are like islands in the ocean, not like hopping accross a river from stone to stone.

2. The amount ot stars needs to be multiplied by 100 (in the huge game). 90 % of these should not have planets

3. Think of the old Amiga game Star Control 2 where you steered your space craft in duel and throttled around a planet, which floated in 3D against the star backround. You should be able to travel continously like this in the 2D map, accross the really really vast distances, and of course delicously faster with new techs. May this be turn based, fine.

4. Think of the old Amiga classic Millennium, which was situated in the Sol system. You probed and colonized the planets and their moons in a reality based universe. You had detailed tech on the planets and the moons and what kind of resources and limitations to habitation they had. You should be able to research the planets and have some good science fiction information about them.

5. The planetary model should also be more detailed, with more space between the planets and more variety in the moon shapes and classes.

The present model of round solar systems with single planets equally distanced from each other and stars in the same 10 cm apart is just not realistic.

Yours, faithfully,
A science fiction and tactics fan,
Teemu Ruskeepää,
Finland
colonies
11,439 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
90 % of these should not have planets

Why is that more realistic? We haven't even discovered everything revolving around our sun. We certainly can't tell what percentage of the stars that have planets. Although it is probable that very few of those planets would be able to support human life. It could turn out that only 1 in a million could support human life, but I don't want my games to be that realistic.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Up to date research suggests that planets are not as uncommon as we once thought or would have expected. It seems that most of our neighboring stars have planets of some sort and, in many cases, numerous confirmed planets. Search for the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

3. Think of the old Amiga game Star Control 2 where you steered your space craft in duel and throttled around a planet, which floated in 3D against the star backround. You should be able to travel continously like this in the 2D map, accross the really really vast distances, and of course delicously faster with new techs. May this be turn based, fine.
Yeah, I don't know I don't think we're saying what you're seeing is really the whole universe. It's just a region of space that everyone is restricted to; There's nothing past the edges of the universe, if you go too far you'll just fall off. It's not like a planet that turns back on it's self.

Something that's maybe beyond todays games, I would love to be able to play in 3D, be able to go up and down as well as side to side. It's hopefully something we'll see in the next generation of games.

Something that might actually be doable for this game is something that I've heard mentioned before. I'd love to see stable worm holes, and/or be able to build the stargates that you see in the intro. Maybe a different type of starbase. It's not something that would be easy to implement but I think it would add another dimention of game play.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just so you know, they originally looked into making it realistic. However, they abandoned this when they realised it would take 10 MINUTES to leave the solar system (not to get to proxima centuri, just leave the oort cloud)

The game is good as is. Realism just isn't wanted or needed by the majority. By all means, go ahead and make a mod. I won't touch it, and don't want my game ruined by it.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
play gigantic map waith rare inhabitable planets and abundant stars, and have fun in your realistic game
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
1. Reasons for this were already stated (this obviously isn't a SE game, for one). Besides, Galciv 1 had them on the same tile as their star.

2. Read the above stuff. Besides, that would get crowded and annoying. Finding the star you were using as a landmark would get obnxious when there's nine others right beside it.

3. ?

4. Why? What does that contribute to gameplay? Perhaps in another game, but it wouldn't aid Galciv2's Civilization style at all. It would just bog the player down.

5. See #1.

Really, I'm thinking you'd be better off playing the Space Empire games than the Galciv ones, though those may not even go far enough for you. Galactic Civilizations 2 isn't striving for "realism" or horrifically mind boggling micromanagement, it's focusing on the larger strategy and diplomacy and whatnot (like the Civ games). And, of course, fun is a big part of the game
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually current star formation modals say its impossible for a star to form without planets. The reason for this is the conservation of angular momentum, of no planets were formed most stars would be spinning so fast that they would fly apart. Which is why uranus has more angular momentum than the sun.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah, the range is a little messed up. Mars is usually about 3 parsecs away from Earth in this game, although in reality that would put it way beyond Alpha Centauri. One parsec = 3.26 light years.

They had to sacrifice something to make it playable. Maybe it would have been better to call the parsecs light hours or AU or something.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually, if you follow the dev posts, you'll find that the "parsec" that is used in game isn't the same as what we refer to as a parsec, it's an "effective parsec" which is adjusted according to interference with drives and sensors. So the nearer you are to a stellar object, the shorter an "effective parsec" is.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
how many have tried out the campain yet . very boring having to researh all the tech every time. also if some civs can have battleships at the start why do we only get a scout or colony ship
has anyone successfully got thought the campain without revering to alteratives ?
i have beaten the Dreath lords once but you don"t get a chnce if they come for you early in the game. i.e 10 soldiers can kill of thousnads of your ground troops.
Rossco
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would also like to see a way to investigate planets before colinization. I played one game where there were very few bonus tiles on PQ10+ planets and didn't start to notice any good ones until I started with the little guys. Maybe a module that could be added to a scout craft and took a turn to complete the planetary survey. Even a pre colony module where you sacrifice a tiny or small craft to find out about a planet.