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GalCiv II: May Roadmap

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GalCiv II: May Roadmap

Stuff that's coming soon..

from GalCiv2 Forums

We're glad that people are liking what we've done with Galactic Civilizations II v1.1. 

We plan to keep doing updates for quite awhile that add new features and functionality to the game.

The last poll showed >90% of users were happy with the changes we made. But around 8% said they were having some technical issues with it and the team investigated this and found that the extra use of memory to speed up performance on larger galaxies has had some negative side effects on stability for those users. This was especially true on (ironically) saving games where a huge memory allocation is made to speed up saving (which for some people resulted in massively longer save times and then it crashing).

So this week we plan to release a v1.11.  The goal being to keep the speed ups but do it without using up extra memory which in turn will hopefully elminate the problems users with small swapfiles ran into.

There will be a full log of what's new in v1.11 before we make it available.  We will take the opportunity to incorporate some new AI strategies based on our playing, er I mean, intense, professional analysis of the game's underlying mechanics.

It also has a new option that users can set to have the AI make use of more advanced algorithms that are more CPU intensive for users who are willing to wait a bit longer between turns. This won't be used in v1.11 yet since those new algorithms still have to be written (but I have a good idea of what they'll be).

Once v1.11 is out, we continue on our way to v1.2 which we still intend to get out this month (May).  The main new feature of v1.2 has to do with modding. We want to make it trivially easy for users to make use of "total conversion" mods from within the game. 

The other significant change to gameplay in v1.2 will be the combat system.  Previously, the attacker took their shot and IF the defender survived, they could fire back.  This turns out, in practice, to be very de-balancing. On paper (i.e. in the design) it seemed like a good idea. 

In v1.2, we're going back to our original GalCiv combat mechanic -- attacker attacks and then defender gets to shoot back and then it looks to see who died.  The attacker still has the advantage of being able to pick the time and place of battle but it's no longer quite so overwhelming an advantage and will encourage ships that have (gasp) defenses on it. ;)

Once v1.2 is done, we will start on v1.3. The feature set of that hasn't been thought of. We just read on the forums and see what people would like added.  I'm partial to a Galactic Encyclopedia feature. But we'll see what users want.

The point of these updates is to ensure that your hard-earned purchase results in a game that remains fresh and new for as long as we can.

Stay tuned. ;)

59,073 views 114 replies
Reply #76 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Bingjack: I stopped playing GC2 a while back. Not because its bad...its a great game. But regardless of changes and improvements made, the vast majority of people can only play any single player game, even one with as much "replayability" as GC2, for so long before they move on to other games, and other things. Sorry rabid fanboys.


Frogboy: Wow, that's a bit of projecting there. You must have missed the poll in which only 33% of players would be willing to buy a $20 multiplayer-centric expansion.


I was going to say the same thing you beat me to it

i was also going to say in response, I was playing Civ3 (yes, 3) until about a year ago. some peop[e do more than play video games all day, extending the shelf-life of any particular game they do buy. and i don't even really engage in modding.
Reply #77 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
it is contrary to the story line for any race to start with anything netter than the basic Hyperdrive


Not really, per the story line, ships used more conventional propulsion to travel within the warp fields created by the warp drive and the star gates so a race could easily have Ion before hyperdrive.

I agree on the prerequisite part when trading
SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #78 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've read posts on the forums that people have stolen the tech victory tech in there games from the AI's. This brings up 2 big points...

1. Stealing tech when not having its prerequisite should not be allowed to happen.

2. Can the AI's win by tech victory or not? If they can't i feel that it's pointless in having it, in affect us players would be cheating by using it if the AI cannot.

Lenius.
Reply #79 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
2. Can the AI's win by tech victory or not? If they can't i feel that it's pointless in having it, in affect us players would be cheating by using it if the AI cannot.

From my experience, they cannot.
Reply #80 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I disagree with building targetting into the combat system. Naturally, the target will almost always be the enemy ship or ships which can do you the most damage. That is how its designed now, and adding additional complexity in that area would not add that much to the gameplay.

That being said, a multiplier system should be put in place in space combat like there is in planetary invasion. There is already -some- of this when it comes to ship defenses and offenses on an individual ship level (such as the experience bonus) However, certain things should be factored in because they mimic real world combat, as multipliers used to compute the overall odds of winning, such as:

Surprise Multiplier. The defenders have a sensor range of X and the attackers can move at a rate of X+Y, meaning that they can show up and attack before the defender sensors have pick them up and give them time to "power up their shields" so to speak. Attackers should get a bonus if they can attack by surprise, as do real life attackers.

Morale Multiplier - if a civilizations overall approval rate (which is equivalent to morale) is 29 percent, they should do worse than a civilization with a morale of 90 percent. In real world battles, troops with higher morale do better, hence the importance of psychological warfare.

Planetary Defense Multiplier - if a crew is in the immediate vicinity of their planets, they will fight harder than if they are in an enemies zone of influence. This is true in real world battles.

There are many of this sort of multiplier than can tweak ship combat to make it more realistic. Additional micromanagment such as controlling targeting is not needed. Also, bulding in "misses" is really not necessary, because in the future, theoretically, we won't miss what we shoot at.
Reply #81 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree on the galactic encyclopedia part, it's extremely useful to know exactly how things work, what they do, how they do it, etc... by looking them up before making decisions. There's just allot of stuff involved in playing the game and it would be great to always have that sort of reference handy within the game.

But I think this is more of a "major" feature considering how much information this involves... quite a data-entry heavy task I think. Indespensable for this sort of genre in my opinion though.

Reply #82 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ummn there is already a very good Galactopedia available for download via this link> http://www.kynosarges.de/Galactopedia.html

This is a stand-alone program but even shows you the parts you have on your custom ships!!!

With this there is no real need for a built-in version. Stardock can spend their precious time and resources adding in something that is new and not adding in something we can already get.

BTW i know there are those of you who would argue that its not a built-in galactopedia, however if you set the interface to windowed mode (yes it works if your native screen size is 1024x768) you can alt+tab out to the stand-alone and look up anything you like. This method does not cause any (in my experience) CTD's.

DG
Reply #83 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Note: Your sphere of influence is NOT your territory.


Are there territory borders? I'm not sure how that works. I do think that if an AI parks a starbase with in 1 turn worth of travel time, or parks some military ships in front of one of my planets, I consider him in my territory. Personally as playing a peaceful civ most of the time I would like an option to tell them to get out before I have to go to war.

More diplomacy in general would be nice.

Reply #84 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In v1.2, we're going back to our original GalCiv combat mechanic -- attacker attacks and then defender gets to shoot back and then it looks to see who died. The attacker still has the advantage of being able to pick the time and place of battle but it's no longer quite so overwhelming an advantage and will encourage ships that have (gasp) defenses on it.


YES! This mechanism was by far the largest game imbalance in v1.0. Many players (correctly complained) that Nanno Rippers were to powerful but few were complaining about attacker shots first. Some players responsed to one of my many posts that Stardock should change the AI to also take advantage of this exploit! Others liked it because by taking advantage of it they could easily win (and ignore researching defenses). I like winning but only if it is a challenge. I completed the Dread Lords campaign on tough without losing any combat ships I built (just the slow ships that you get at the start of some missions). The Dread Lords ships were fast and powerfull but my fleets could see them coming thanks to "Eyes of the Universe" and take them out before they could fire back! The few times I could not take them out in the first shot my ships had levelled up enough to absorb a hit and survive!

[v1.11] has a new option that users can set to have the AI make use of more advanced algorithms that are more CPU intensive for users who are willing to wait a bit longer between turns.


I would be in favor for giving the AI more CPU time if it meant it would play smarter! Although I think there are improvement that can be made that would not require extra resources.
(1) In v1.1 the AI places more value on speed which is good but it also needs to place more value on sensors. The player who builds "Eyes of the Universe" has a large advantage over the others!
(2) Choosing alignment "Neutral" and building "Neutrality Learning Centers" allows you to greatly accelerate your research! On difficulty level Tough I easily out research the AIs even without NLCs because the AI does not allocate enough spending to research.

For example, one of the most intensive things that the AI does is design ships. Part of that reason has to do with the actual graphical assemblage which I don't fully understand what's involved on that part. But I only allow the AI to design ships once per year right now. If I tweaked it to even 3 times a year I think you'd notice a significant difference, especially early on when human players have better ships because in 2226 the human player has gotten plasma weapons and the AI is still running around with laser 1 or something when it has actually researched Plasma weapons as well.


1 year is far too long to go between ship redesigns (especially if very fast research option is selected)! How about having it redesign ships on turns where it gains some new tech which impacts the quality of its' ships? Human players import ship designs from past games and then research the techs needed to build those ships. Could the AI not be provided with smart ship designs at the start of the game? When you consider the combinations of weapons and defenses the list could grow very long. Although I build ships unique to each game (usually changing things like ship range), these days I find myself always researching Beam weapons and ignoring defenses (defenses are not needed if your fast fleets strike first and hard and then level up but that should change in v1.2). In the pre-1.0 Beta I focused on Mass Drivers because they then were more effective when you consider size/cost/strength (e.g., Nanno Rippers) and armor was less effective.

Thanks for listening to your customers!
Reply #85 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
here is the link to the main thread


Link



might as well quote and re-quote myself from another thread..

#1



more jewlery
unique hulls for each alien species, and several more for custom races and minors
revamped minors
more technology
more planetary structure... unique ones for different races
more planetary types and looks
asteroid mining, asteroid construction
an ability to declare war diplomatically due to xxx
a tag line asking the AI to remove it's offensive ships from your influence area via a creation of an actuall physical border ala Civ4...
some of the other excellent ideas written by you people


-N


#2




Trolling
Insightful


some more stuff...



variety in systems.. i.e. more suns, more/less planet variety...
more planet types
asteroid belts
multi mooned planets
more space events


#3

Now that I have been playing for a few months.... here are a few things they need to add/tweek/replace..


1) need to be able to stop a project mid upgrade/build without losing too much work (call it overrun) and start something new..

ex. You take over an alien world, and immediatly, everything is up for upgrade... even though you yourself wouldn't build things the way the AI does.. so you are stuck waiting for everything to get built before replacing, or have to pay to build it now.. and then you upgrade..........


wasteful

2) losing a turn after loading a saved game

ex. no research or building going on for the first turn...


annoying

3) AI getting better at using the special resource tiles

ex. you take over a planet and research bonus tiles do not have research labs on them, and resource bonus tiles do not have manufacturing

waseful

4) ability to declare attack

ex. only during a direct attack can you declare war why?

looks like you are a backstabber

5) ability to break alliances

same as above

6) hard point tweeking in the ship builder

ex. the damned thing looks crooked/uneven

uniformity is key

7) correct all the formulas for generating actual over all position of specices when compared to others

ex. under the planets tab for the info screen, you are always rated differently then during the quarterly reports

hard to take those things seriously


so far that is it




that'sit so far....


sorry if I repeated myself
Reply #86 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
damn.. double post
Reply #87 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
My one wish for 1.2: Chosen and random alignments for the major races.
Reply #88 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In v1.2, we're going back to our original GalCiv combat mechanic -- attacker attacks and then defender gets to shoot back and then it looks to see who died. The attacker still has the advantage of being able to pick the time and place of battle but it's no longer quite so overwhelming an advantage and will encourage ships that have (gasp) defenses on it.


YES! This mechanism was by far the largest game imbalance in v1.0. Many players (correctly complained) that Nanno Rippers were to powerful but few were complaining about attacker shots first. Some players responsed to one of my many posts that Stardock should change the AI to also take advantage of this exploit! Others liked it because by taking advantage of it they could easily win (and ignore researching defenses). I like winning but only if it is a challenge. I completed the Dread Lords campaign on tough without losing any combat ships I built (just the slow ships that you get at the start of some missions). The Dread Lords ships were fast and powerfull but my fleets could see them coming thanks to "Eyes of the Universe" and take them out before they could fire back! The few times I could not take them out in the first shot my ships had levelled up enough to absorb a hit and survive!

[v1.11] has a new option that users can set to have the AI make use of more advanced algorithms that are more CPU intensive for users who are willing to wait a bit longer between turns.


I would be in favor for giving the AI more CPU time if it meant it would play smarter! Although I think there are improvement that can be made that would not require extra resources.
(1) In v1.1 the AI places more value on speed which is good but it also needs to place more value on sensors. The player who builds "Eyes of the Universe" has a large advantage over the others!
(2) Choosing alignment "Neutral" and building "Neutrality Learning Centers" allows you to greatly accelerate your research! On difficulty level Tough I easily out research the AIs even without NLCs because the AI does not allocate enough spending to research.

For example, one of the most intensive things that the AI does is design ships. Part of that reason has to do with the actual graphical assemblage which I don't fully understand what's involved on that part. But I only allow the AI to design ships once per year right now. If I tweaked it to even 3 times a year I think you'd notice a significant difference, especially early on when human players have better ships because in 2226 the human player has gotten plasma weapons and the AI is still running around with laser 1 or something when it has actually researched Plasma weapons as well.


1 year is far too long to go between ship redesigns (especially if very fast research option is selected)! How about having it redesign ships on turns where it gains some new tech which impacts the quality of its' ships? Human players import ship designs from past games and then research the techs needed to build those ships. Could the AI not be provided with smart ship designs at the start of the game? When you consider the combinations of weapons and defenses the list could grow very long. Although I build ships unique to each game (usually changing things like ship range), these days I find myself always researching Beam weapons and ignoring defenses (defenses are not needed if your fast fleets strike first and hard and then level up but that should change in v1.2). In the pre-1.0 Beta I focused on Mass Drivers because they then were more effective when you consider size/cost/strength (e.g., Nanno Rippers) and armor was less effective.

Thanks for listening to your customers!
Reply #89 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
THE single most annoying thing about Galciv2 is the trade screen. Can you make it so when I offer a bundle of tech, and then I call up his cash bar to ask money for it, that the screen come up automatically set to how much he is willing to offer for the bundle. I mean, it is a single answer for any give bundle of goods, and it is a huge pain in the ass to have to search for that optimum level. It adds no value to the game other than to test one's patience. Can you PUHLEASE fix this. It would make trading so much more pleasant and efficient.

doug
Reply #90 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Isn't taking away the first shot advantage going to completely nullify the use of speed though? Sure, you can still make ships fast, but to what purpose? So they can intercept attacking fleets? Why bother? Just put all your ships at home, and put extra armor/shields on them. No need to bother with speed anymore.


Speed is important for more reasons than first strike. It is so you can get around the galaxy quickly. When your producing worlds are all over the galaxy, they need to be fast to be useful in any war that you haven't planned out in advance. I will always sacrifice attack and defense power for a little more speed so that I can get my fleets together in a coordinated attack. That wouldn't change even if the first strike advantage went away.
Reply #91 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
DougQ: Isn't taking away the first shot advantage going to completely nullify the use of speed though?

Frogboy: The attacker still has the advantage of being able to pick the time and place of battle but it's no longer quite so overwhelming an advantage and will encourage ships that have (gasp) defenses on it.

I will still give my offensive fleets good speed for the reasons Frogboy and Martimus have given. However, now I won't have fast defensive fleets near my planets, ready to intercept attacking fleets and get in that first shot. Instead I'll have them in orbit to get the attack/defense bonus of being in orbit, with an Orbital Fleet Manager if there is more than one. Balancing the combat does not make speed useless but it does suddenly make ship defenses and planetary defenses (e.g., the Orbital Fleet Manager, Omega Defense System) much more usefull! Suddenly, we will start designing different fleets for attack and defense.
Reply #92 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Can you make it so when I offer a bundle of tech, and then I call up his cash bar to ask money for it, that the screen come up automatically set to how much he is willing to offer for the bundle.

Yes, I second the idea of a "cash me out" button. It is done anyway when trading, so why not make it more comfortable?
Reply #93 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Going back to the old Gal Civ 1 system should radically change the ship design strategy. In the current system I tend to go for offensive power since if you attack first you can often wipe out the entire defending fleet before they got off one shot.

You say that like it is a bad thing. The present system makes ship and planetary defenses almost useless. With balance restored to combat the attacker still has the advantage of chosing when to fight but instead of winning each battle and levelling up (to the point when a fighter has more HP than a dreadnought!) he will sometimes lose. It will make combat much more interesting!
Reply #94 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The combat change is great news. The AI will be far more challenging for me. It's too easy to dominate an equally matched opponent by striking first every time.
Reply #95 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
MOIISKA: 1) need to be able to stop a project mid upgrade/build without losing too much work (call it overrun) and start something new..

ex. You take over an alien world, and immediatly, everything is up for upgrade... even though you yourself wouldn't build things the way the AI does.. so you are stuck waiting for everything to get built before replacing, or have to pay to build it now.. and then you upgrade...

This is already possible. Go to the build queue, click on the build/upgrade you wish to change, click on what you want to replace it with, and then click BUILD.
Reply #96 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ummn there is already a very good Galactopedia available for download via this link> Link

This is a stand-alone program but even shows you the parts you have on your custom ships!!!

With this there is no real need for a built-in version. Stardock can spend their precious time and resources adding in something that is new and not adding in something we can already get.


I completely agree with this point. Most people who are playing Gal Civ 2 still have probably been playing it for some time now. An encyclopedia thing would only be of much use to new players. I think new worthwhile features and upgraded AI is much more likely to attract new people and hang on to those who are already playing. There is no need for an encyclopedia type thing the information for Gal Civ 2 is already out there and easily accesible.
Reply #97 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There is no need for an encyclopedia type thing the information for Gal Civ 2 is already out there and easily accesible.


Is this the state of PC gaming? That its OK for developers to slack off because the mod community will always have their back?

The reason developers get away with this stuf is because we let them! If we would stop letting them get away with selling pre-beta software and then patching it a bunch, or relying on modders to take up the slack, then we'd be getting much more polished game experiences.

Plus, you're not even thinking about mods. When the mod features of 1.2 go online, that external Galctopedia is meaningless because the files would be a combination of several XML files. Either that, or it would have to be updated to be able to respond as GalCiv2 does to mods.
Reply #98 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I am not sure if this has been requested before. Can we have real time shit to shit and fleet to fleet combat instead added, with the current combat system, there is no real strategies involved especially in situation when one side has only a slight advantage over the other. If not real time combat, then perhaps turn based combat. Also, it would be nice if ground invasion can be done using either turn based or real time combat.

Also, as for options for spying, is it possible for spies to go on assisination missions. It would be so cool to go and assisinate an opponet's empire head of state.
Reply #99 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Didn't know that A.I took so much cpu power And am I the only one that think it's kinda dull to play zoomed out? You don't see your ships and don't get any immersion but you HAVE to play like that if you're going to have a good chance to win or not getting attacked by supersmall ships.

It happened to me in campaign mission "Siege". Something blow up next to "Locke" and when I zoomed out I saw three Dread Lord fighters (ultra powerful nonetheless) that are nigh impossible to see when zoomed in. Is this game meant to be played in such a boring way...?

About the change in combat system. Campaignmissions will take twice the amount of time then since I rely on killing enemy fleets in my first attack (and it takes forever to get that high tech!)

And will your ships get repaired even if you don't choose repair it as a race ability? (disregarding buildings)
Reply #100 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I am not sure if this has been requested before. Can we have real time shit to shit and fleet to fleet combat instead added, with the current combat system, there is no real strategies involved especially in situation when one side has only a slight advantage over the other. If not real time combat, then perhaps turn based combat.

Well, you are asking for tactical combat. Don't expect in in GC II. They are already some threads about this in the GC 2 forums, but it boils down to the following points:
- you don't have range effects/limitation on your weapons: any ship can fire at any ship.
- Stardock will implement a tactical battle only if the AI can handle it correctly.