@redshift

If you check the option not to waste auto moves, after you hit turn then when a ship with automoves that has movement points left will stop the autoturn priocess and you will again see the turn button. At this point, if you hit Tab it will center on the ship with moves remaining. You can also go to other ships, that have not auto moved yet - or do anything you want. It kicks you back into regular turn mode again, until you press the turn button again.

This is in the Beta 1.1 versions - not sure if it is in 1.0x

Honestly, I never read paper game magazines for good reason. They're all ads. The overhyped games always get terrific ratings despite how crappy they may be (see Driv3r), and the largest multi-page reviews. Indy titles or more underrated games are often overlooked entirely, or given little consideration.

There needs to be a way to give build orders to multiple planets (not governers... what if I have 50 planets building constructors and I want 25 to start building warships).

Well, it's pretty easy and quick to do from the F2 planet list - I can't think of any easier way to implement it, how are you suggesting it is done?

The AI needs to be taught how to build on bonus squares, and in general not gimp its planets by not building a factory (I've taken over planets with very few improvements late in the game).

The AI does appear to use scorched earth tactics. Also, the planet could well have changed hands between AIs a few times - and they love to use invasion tactics that destroy improvements. Unless you've captured an extremely badly developed planet from an AI that has never been involved in a war, and you took it on a first turn surprise attack, then this isn't a valid observation.

i still dont know how to set rally points

It's the tiny little button above the visible research/morale/cash display in the bottom left.

or upgrade my ships on mass

There's a little checkbox saying "Upgrade all ships of this class". This is the only other option aside from ship by ship updates.

automatate production EFFECTIVELY

Err... what? I don't think you can automatate at all. You say what ship, it builds. You have to do the infrastructure yourself. If you mean shifting focus, just click on the icon next to the output on the planet screen.

manage many individual fleets (without loosing them or carefully scruitinizing for them)...

If there is nothing for them to do, send them home. Otherwise you'll just get bored of doing nothing. If you're preparing for an invasion, set the up strategically, ready for the attack.

the game shifts back to my flagship every fkn turn regardless of whether he is on guard or no

Flick him on sentry, he'll only shift if he sees something that shouldn't be there. Or press W for auto explore, he'll go look for unexplored space and not ever bother you again (I mean that)

No 6 out of 5 would have been very generous. This cracks me up. Opinion people. Everyone has one myself included.

Could things be better? Well define better. I always find it amusing when in my own job I design an interface for something that I think is spot on and then someone comes along and tells me its *too confusing*. And by that they mean to say *hey how come this button isn't here?*. Guess what. Not every one thinks the same or perceives things in the same way. There are a few of us that apparently have zero issues with the interface because it made sense from day one. Guess I'm just special that way

Often makes me wonder what a game like Pong would have gotten if there had been reviews and forums back then. Talk about a confusing interface... You want me to spin this knob to make that block move up and down the screen?!?? wait that makes no sense... it should be slide a control up and down to make the block move up and down. This is awful. Who designed it a blind monkey?!?? At least Space Invaders interface made sense cause you push the joystick left the ship goes left and same for right.

I wish at times people would complain about game content rather then personal preference. You know why the interface works the way it does? Because the devs like it that way.

Sending ships home when a base can only support a limited number of docked ships?

If you aren't at war, there is no reason for an army so huge it can't fit. If there is, your ships are far too weak.

If you could read properly i said upgrade on mass.. why should i have to disband my fleets and upgrade each ship individually?

If YOU could read properly, when you upgrade any ship of a certain type (in the game, not the designer), you have the option to upgrade all ships of that class. This includes auto-upgrading those in fleets, and all from 1 single ship.

sure everyone has an opinion but some things are obvious flaws which is what i was pointing out.. for instance im sure the devs are aware and probably arent happy with alot of the problems which is why they are patching ..

Not true, the main thing is better AI and user-suggested options. There are things they want to fix, but probably not as many as you think. Most things were fixing beta bugs, which are to be expected. The AI is a constant work-in-progress.

Oh yeah, and before you say "there is no way to prove" it's called the metaverse. We see the badges, victories, and defeats, to see what you can and can't do. Before you start to become more aggresive, get your facts right. Just so you don't start to look like an idiot.

And i'm not saying it's bad, just that it isn't 9/10 good.

These people who think 4.5 out of 5 or 5 out of 5 is being "generous" begs the question. Okay, what's a 5 out of 5 game?

Civilization 4? Is that a 5 out of 5 game? A game that gets tedious because the computer players have to cheat like mad to be remotely challenging? A game where you have to play multiplayer to have any sort of longevity? A game that is virtually impossible to win other than space race or letting the time run out? I would give Civ 4 a 4.5 out of 5 or even a 5 out of 5 even with these flaws because games are rated compared to each other.

What about Oblivion? It's averaging 5 out of 5 ratings almost. A game where the caves are all the same? A game where the more you play the more you realize the everything was copied and pasted across the world with different names? A game that has all the NPCs leveling up along with you so that walking the road at level 20 means the bandidts are now level 20? That you could clear the enemy gates at level 2 but have a tougher time at level 30 because the guards are now level 30 instead?

We aren't comparing GalCiv to some imaginary perfect game. We're comparing it to other games that have been reviewed. Compared to say Age of Empires 3 or Oblivion or even Civilization 4 which all got their share of 4.5 or 5 out of 5 reviews then hell yea, GalCIv II is a 5 out of 5 game.

No reasonable reviewer shoudl be giving it less than 4 out of 5.

an idea to do this:

To change what planets you want to change the ships they are building....

highlight all of the planets from the planet screen and then change 1 planet (from the selected) and it'll automatically update all that are seleceted.

sure everyone has an opinion but some things are obvious flaws which is what i was pointing out.. for instance im sure the devs are aware and probably arent happy with alot of the problems which is why they are patching .... the difference between 1.0x and beta 1.1 is fairly dramatic so that implies the devs dont simply choose things because they "like it that way"

No arguement there. But not everything you pointed out are flaws either. I'll grant you that this game has one of the steepest learning curves of anything released in recent memory. And I did mean to put a smilie face at the end of that last line about them liking it that way. There comes a point in development where you have to decide *yeah it's not perfect but we need to stamp it done so we can move on*. Luckily for us Stardock is going back and tweaking the things that were a bit off like the shipyard.

I guess its just amusing to me and probably only me when people complain about something as being *unituitive* since that means different things to a lot of different people. Personally I had a harder time getting my head around the economy then I did the interface. Once I found the Colony tab in the Civ Manager screen I was all set. Didn't read the manual nor did I go through the tutorials. I just kept clicking things until I found what I needed. But as I said I'm funny that way I guess .

Marcathonas:

Us "Fanboys" acknowledge the game isn't perfect.

I regret having put that sentence in my original post. It served no purpose but to provoke. I didn't think it though, just typed on the fly, and I apologize.

The feeling behind it was the frustration I get when I see people rave about the AI and attack anyone that says the game has serious problems. I think the game DOES have problems, and some of them are rather irritating. In addition, I have seen many people respond to criticism of the AI with "Turn up the difficulty, it is amazing." I don't agree. I'll admit I'm pretty good at TBS games, but I expect to be frustrated by the highest difficulty for a while.

I never intended to argue that the 60% was a fair rating. Perhaps this was the wrong thread to express myself in. I do feel that the game has flaws that, in my mind, could not allow it a 5/5 rating. I think very very few PC games have deserved a rating of 5/5 at release time. I hope and believe those flaws will be addressed (I know some of them will be in the next patch).

The game IS really good, and I think that with some more work (UI and AI) it can be one of the few truly great games.

I had never played a 4X game before and so my first impressions were not much different from some of those echoed in the review. However through these forums, and reading many reviews and other peoples opinions, I decided to work my way through those and found they changed, totally.
Whilst I think there are some real shortcomings to the game I akin it to a rough diamond, in need of a polish.

What some seasoned veterans of this series need to consider is that the first time player / buyer will see the game differently, and not be as forgiving of any shortcomings. They will not understand the dedication, support and enthusiasm that goes to make Stardock one of the better game developers and supporters of their software.

I had similar opinion when I first played Civ 3, then I became a Civ addict. Civ 4 is different - eye candy galore but there is substance underneath.

Now I'm just a Galciv adddict


I have a thought that if this type of game is going to appeal to those who wouldn't normally be attracted to this genre then it would need to do something similar to what Civ 4 has done over Civ 3.

I guess I'm a little more forgiving of what I term *sequence* flaws then most. Yes I've run into the click a ship and it moves two ships bug but for the most part once I figured out what was going on I simply stopped doing the sequence of clicks that cause it. Therefore I don't see it as a major problem because I no longer have it.

Oh and I do have things that the game does that annoy me. For instance I play the game almost exclusively in strategic view orientated in such a way that if I scroll the map *up* the view moves *up* on the mini map. Now every time I load a game or start a new one I've got to adjust the map. But do I complain about it and say the game is flawed? No of course not. I simply put it on my list of suggestions when they ask for them and if it gets changed then bonus for me. If not then I'll just keep putting it the way I want and go about my business.

As for the AI not building on its planets well this is something they are addressing in v1.1 and from the looks of things it's a lot better. Is it perfect? Well no of course not it is an AI after all. But it is better then any other AI in any other game of this type. Period. You don't have to build a factory on every planet. This is one of those instances where the logic *because I do it means it must be right* does not apply. Maybe it is a border world and the AI doesn't want to risk giving you a fully developed world. Maybe it decided to use the planet for population for transports it will purchase. Also on higher difficulties it will actually remove buildings from a world it thinks is in danger of capture. It does take advantage of bonus tiles if need be. Again these things are all in 1.1. Should these changes been in release? Well hard to say since I'm willing to bet that the majority of this update is simply because the devs and all of us have had a month to play the game.

Honestly quibbling over a 4.5 or 5 is mostly personal preference and pointless. The 60% the mag gave it is just ludicrous and proved the reviewer did not give the game time. Sure on a gloss over of two or three hours things look terrible. But after several days you begin to see where the strength of the game lies. Brad had a post about reviewer types a little while ago. The type that *reads the marketing materials and decides what to give the game* seems to be what this particular review falls into .