Something missing from the game: atmosphere

While I think the races are quite ok I dislike the fact that they all like the same planets. Ok, perhaps most planets are uninhabitable to all of them, but the inhabitable planets shouldn't be the same for all. Perhaps a level 17 planet for Yor should be a level 11 for Humans becouse of the difference between the races (breathing atmosphere etc.).

What I'm saying is that the diversity between the races has little effect on the gameplay. You can play all races exactly the same although there are nominal differences between them.

Otherwise I love the game, the AI is getting better and better with each patch. Also I'm surprised Stardock is doing so many little things to the game that cummulatively make it a far better game from the one we started with. Perhaps my surprise wouldn't be as big if I played GC1...

Those are good points...

Unfortunately game stays a bit locked in our humanoid presumptions about life in outer space...A little bit of free thought and imagination wouldn't be doing any bad for some future games like this...

But I do have a feeling that I play Star Trek thing from time to time....

I believe Ascendancy had the features you suggest.

I did notice the humanoid trend, but it didn't bug me too much as they were supposed to have been created/influenced by humanoid precursors.

I feel it has plenty of atmosphere. the only thing that would make it better is for the cutscenes not to be so horribly choppy.

I believe Ascendancy had the features you suggest.

Oh yeah, Ascendancy was such a great game when it comes to atmosphere. Didnt they intend to make a sequel?

As far as space games go, I thought GC2 had a ton more personality and told things on a more intimate level, also it's very possible to design and name your ships following a certain theme in order to create a bit of atmosphere for yourself.

Sometimes I try to bear in mind a basic mindset of the race I'm playing, and make that a factor in various decisions, I'm not that great at juggling the numbers anyway so choosing based on my idea of what my people would do is just as well and adds a lot of spice to the proceedings. Sometimes they'll be xenophobic and haughty, and take an aggressive stance to all other races; sometimes they'll be eager to form alliances and only maintain a meager military in times of peace. Some empires will build influence starbases to counter influence rushing, while others will go to war and make the interlopers pay dearly for their insolence.

My point is a lot of the atmosphere depends on you, the player, which lets you define that atmosphere however you wish, but of course that doesn't really do it for everyone. I think the expansion pack will add more flavor to the game, the only feature I've heard of so far in the expansion back is a text breakdown of what happened during the game, kind of an end-game narrative. Perhaps they'll do something to give you a more solid narrative during the game too -- the AI's pretty good at figuring out the situation and the balance of power and interpreting things (all those descriptive diplomacy messages we get), maybe they can offshoot from that a 'storyteller' AI that determines what's going on and figures out story or even game consequences as a result. Perhaps random events will be more common, but less random, effected by what's going on in the game?

I do agree with the lack of atmosphere though - mainly because one looks at space and there is just not much going on. With Civ that is just that bit more exciting since there is tons of stuf going on with al types of terrain and wht it does to strategy and tactics. Overall it is for me somewhat disappointing since one is looking mostly at the screen seeing a bunch of stationary planets, some moving fleets and trade routes. In particular if ones style is more peaceful than warmongering sometimes you just do not get drawn into the game. But well, it is space but therefore it needs some more other things. For instance the on display graphs are pretty nice to use as a monitor. Also to have some more sci-fi elements into it would probably be a good way to get more of an atmosphere and attachment.

What I think would help in this respect is the dimplomacy side of things - i.e. much more possibilities to intereact with others, e.g. diplomoacy that affects the UN events. That would give more athmosphere and alleviate some of the issues I share with the OP.

Seems to me that the synthetic race(Yor) could live on any planet. The don't breathe. So having a higher quality planet for them would be a waste. The opposite would be true for the Torians.

My two cents.

Time to bounce.

Ascendancy

Great Game.

But Absolutely the Worst AI ever implemented in a Game. What a waste.

If that game had developoers 1/10th as dedicated as the Stardockies, that would have been a classic.

People that complain about the Galciv2 Ai should have played that game. Even after the agression patch it was unplayable after a few games. It did look nice though.

Ascendency was great... except the AI could never build a decent ship. >.>

MOO II did well with different planets, and the way various races interacted with them. Those darn Sillicoids!

Ascendancy had a great AI, it just wasn't developed by The Logic Factory. The built-in AI sucked, however a replacement AI mod was released by someone. I don't remember who, and can't find it on the net, but I know I have it somewhere because I go back and play it occasionally and always add the mod.

I have noticed that the AIs sometimes colonize a lower PQ planet right beside a higher one. Is there a reason for this?

At a guess:

-They already have another colonisation ship on the way to the higher PQ planet (yes, it would be more sensible to give it to the first one to get there, but I suspect the AI is on 'fire and forget' mode for colonisers, unless someone else gets there first)
-They hadn't seen the higher PQ planet when they launched the first colony ship
-They're just being stupid

One of the three...

I tend to agree with your points but it seems to happen more than would be indicated by them (except for the stupid one). The reason I bring this up is due to the disussion on different races should like different planets. It almost looks like it might do some form of that.

Ascendancy = Aggressor Ai

ANyone know how to unlock the unique files to Ascendancy??? I want port over the ship styles... and some of the planet tiles... they rocked.. and world skins.. etc


I love that game..


Still own the original packaging.

Some more thoughts:

You never see your picture after the creation process. I would like a more constant reminder of what I look like.
,
The planets feel very generic. I'm not asking for Civ-4 levels of graphic beauty, but something (still artwork?) to make it seem more exotic and wonderful.

Perhaps giving each of the races some sort of unique ability that goes against the rules in some way. Factories work as farms for the robot race... Kamakazi exploding ships for the evil race... Ability to build special elite ships for the noble race... I don't know. Something cool.

-- hintikka

Im glad someone noticed the similar background story to the MOO games

Ascendancy - I own it and was never a big fan (probably AI). I do remember why I brought it though. I think PC Gamer gave it a 95 rating before it was ont the shelf. The writer praised it.

Than the game came out and Computer Gaming World and the rest gave it about a 60. Turns out the PC Gamer writer was writing the strategy book for the game. Swears he wasn't tooting his own horn.

I liked Reach for the Stars.

THe game does have a different type of atmosphere. Addiction, the next turn problem. I find I am working on different things and never want to stop. It creates a game play focus atmosphere. The diplomacy makes you have to consider (suicide) what actions and things you do. The characters are a little generic and could use more and the planet idea is a good one (obviously moo fans) but on the whole the game pulls you in.

I think that one thing is that it just doesn't have much atmosphere.

That's because it's in space.

... what?

A great game is more than just AI
Its the sum of its whole...Everything from graphics to music to gameplay.

Ascendancy had poor AI and too much micro managing, yet it had geat atmosphere.
It was a 3d world which created a more real feeling of space. The music was amazing and there was lots of variety with the races.

Galciv 2 has great graphics, AI, decent music, but desperatly needs more diplomacy.
Diplomacy would create the feeling you're up against real opponents.
The races would need a bit more depth, or to be fleshed out more to make it work.

One of the races could act more like the Ferengi of Next Gen, always wanting to wheel and deal.
Another race would want to keep peace, and strive for that at all costs.

The curent diplomatic screen would need to be reworked from the way it is, mabe even a section for canned responses, or canned demands. Even a button to break contact with that race.

I would like to see a rich technological race ask for ships or even a planet for its high end techs.

I think this is the future of this game.

When everyone says there needs to be more diplomacy on GalCiv2, I think of dickering. I think there needs to be more going back and forth rather than, how about this deal and a yes or no. Maybe a if you won't do this, then how about... You also need the ability to say, stop doing that or else.

Ascendancy was a great idea in some ways but a deeply flawed game in others...IMHO the AI was never really worth much even after the "antag" upgrade.

Every game was the same - rush to nano dissamblers and proceed to disassemble your opponents.

But visually it was beautiful and the posters above are correct about the races being very unique. Frankly I was disappointed when I started by first GC2 game and saw that not every race had a ship type, for example.

I agree with all people here.

Diplomacy need tweak.

The races need to be more different from the others and more unique. They should act really differently too. I like the idea of one race always trying to make deal and the other trying to keep peace, etc, etc.

In terms of atmosphere, I think the Game could use a little work.

Perhaps wither modders or devs will take up the challange. In one sense, even little things could make a srastic improvement. One example would be when your Civilization completes its current research, instead of a screen with a graphic of a generic robot, the graphic would have a member of your civilization (ala MOO2).

Other things like mutually exclusive race bonuses (IE your civ is more "hearty" and thus PQ is rasied a few points on all world for you. However, your pop growth is significantly slower at teh begining) would also create a lot of variation between players. Mutually exclusive technologies where you must chose 1 (and only that 1) of several technologies to research. This way the different races will have different techs and it would not be possible to research every tech in the game. Tech trading might be useful.

Hopefully this is atleast moddable so that we could implement it ourselves if we wanted. That is a beauty about this game. We can change to make an even greater Game!!

Peace

I have to agree, the race abilities look pretty generic, there isn't any unique feel to the races. This is for balance reasons I expect, so all races can do exactly the same thing but differ only in efficency.

It would be nice to have some modal ability that is yes/no allowing some races to break the rules (not just bend it).

Such as the lithovore ability from Moo2 for instance, so they don't need food, or cybernatics where they consume 1/2 production 1/2 food. Or telepathy which enables them to convert enemy populations... Or maybe some sort of steathy ability to evade scanners..