stardock give up on planet city lights?

from GalCiv2 Forums
a while back one of the features advertised for this game was that planets would have lights show up on the dark side of colonized planets showing the high population and developed nature of the colony. Now I have never seen this happen in any of my games. Sure I have seen it on a random uncolonized planet once in a while but never on any of my planets or any of the other races planets that have been developed. They all should have had them, but they didn't.

I figured it was a bug so I made a post about it. Sure enough, other people were expressing the same things. Apart from a random occurrence the advertised planet city lights were not working as intended. This was never acknowledged as a bug by stardock who , aside from a dismissive comment to me, largely ignored this.

There have been a number of patches and updates since my post and not one of them has adressed this bug. With 1.3 coming out and attention being diverted to the expansion, I feel this is my last chance to bring attention to this. I know its not a major bug, but it was something that was advertised to be in the game and i just want to have the full game experience. Besides, there have been tons of other cosmetic fixes and additions requested by the community that stardock has done, yet nothing done about this.

So I ask why? Why is this particular problem not being looked at and fixed?
22,396 views 35 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have seen city lights on my planets since at least 1.2. Haven't had an issue since. They even show up in the battle screen when a planet it attacked.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've had them since the beta, no problems.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I haven't noticed them when I play, but that's probably because I don't look for them. I do notice them on the battle screen, however - maybe you just need to zoom in really close to see them.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
hmmmmm. I see them on my planets all the time, but not everytime.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
They arent exactly working as advertised maybe.

Or atleast it seems so in my games, Iam no expert in coding or texturing, but it seems city light are ON no matter which side you watch the planet. Kinda looks silly having white dots on light side of the planet. As I said, I have no idea should they work like this, just that it looks weird.

Plus the light dots usually show up on water tiles too, which is also weird
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
mine are working (though not on the planet screen -was i supposed to seem them there)
but you have to zoom in, and also altering your ambient light can diminsh the effects.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have 1.2 and I only got planet lights once in a while, the only lights I got are the Class_27_Lights.dds and the mars lights and earth lights, but I never saw the mars and the earth lights in the game... every planet has it's own lights? and how many lights you got in the planet file? (gfx/planet)
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Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
They have planet lights? Cool! I might have to zoom in from icon view to see that next game!   
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In an earlier post about this, I recall that it was concluded that Intel graphic controllers did not show the lights- mine aren't there, and no settings have brought them to the game. I guess it's just a card issue, I'm not really sure why they don't show up.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I dont get lights   ! well... actually, i get a bit of a silvery effect on certain planets (colonized or not) like ice or something.... this is most evident on class 26s but others have this "ice effect" as well. as for colony lights, i dont see them... as for the intel thing, if your talking about cards, then i should see them because i have an ATI/Radeon thingy (it says both on the box...). if your talknig about drivers then i have not the slightest clue... i dont even know what driver i have! it would be cool to see those though.... but that is such a minor thing i wouldnt worry about it....
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
LOL! I had *no* idea this even existed, or was supposed to. Never play zoomed in.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i know its definately not a problem with ati cards because i have one and i do see the lights. The problem is they are not working as they are supposed to. They show up on random planets once in a while, sometimes none at all, instead of on developed colony worlds as they are supposed to.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i'd really like to know why some people see lights and others don't. Is it a coding issue? is it a video card issue? Is there something we can do to be able to see the lights like everyone else? I really want to get to the bottom of this.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well I have Radeon X1900XT with latest 6.6 catalyst and planet lights show up and then again don´t. So the light behaviour is very erratic, which leads me to believe its a coding issue.

I have tryed all the previous GC2 versions and multiple ATI catalyst versions and I cannot say that the light have ever worked 100%
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
My planets don't even have a dark side, and it won't let me alter the anti-aliasing feature which is weird. Ive tried altering some of the settings but nothing works, i assume its my driver but other games like the Sims 2 work fine.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I didn't even know there was such a thing, and certainly haven't ever seen them. But then again, it's not necessariyl a feature that is key to the game for me, whether it works or not, I wouldn't have probably noticed either way.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i know its definately not a problem with ati cards because i have one and i do see the lights. The problem is they are not working as they are supposed to. They show up on random planets once in a while, sometimes none at all, instead of on developed colony worlds as they are supposed to.


Noone actually said they would make sense, just that they are there   
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i care numbfreeze, so do other people. You don't have to, no one is forcing you to. May not be a top priority, but if they can add stuff to patches like requested features in addition to bug fixes, well then asking for this to be fixed should not simply be dismissed. I reject your priorities and substitute my own
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I vote to BUMP this cuz I dont see the "LIGHTS". SOMETIMES they appear, but they look like sh*yt. Really I dont mean to be rude but they look ugly, and dont work all the time, appear on the bright side of the planet, LOL   , apear on unclolonized planets, and sometimes on the battlescreen but they look even uglier than on the main map... Com on stardock its just a texture thing, how can it be so hard to fix ???


Monc34
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Com on stardock its just a texture thing, how can it be so hard to fix ???


So... you read a thread that says they've been greatly improved in 1.3, then post here complaining that they aren't fixed? (When you said yourself you haven't tried the 1.3 betas)
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
the planet lights system is all wrong! you get class_27 lights in some planet else and Earth and mars lights are not appearing at all! I think stardock should have an option that is just like "mods" in version 1.2. "Use City Lights" option!
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think stardock should have an option that is just like "mods" in version 1.2. "Use City Lights" option!


Agreed
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You will have to upgrade to 1.3 in order to get the benefits of the new city lights, which look much better than they do in 1.2. 

And there is an option to turn them off for people who do not care for them or find that it decreases their performance.

Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
CariElf,

in the 1.3 beta metaverse games are appearing with the cheating flag, stardock awere of this? it's the only reason I'm not upgrading...