Whether it’s a Space Monster or an event, i believe that there should be something to help prevent the initial colony and exploration rush. That way, you would actually have to scout and secure areas before you could move out more vulnerable ships.

You simply shouldn't be able to truck off billions of people into space carelessly like now. There has to be something else that is dangerous in our galaxy besides other races. Losing a full colony or survey ship would be a pretty big blow in the beginning of the game which would encourage more cautious play.

I believe that Space Monsters would be the easiest to implement. Have a number of them uniformly generated across the map during the beginning of each game. There could also be an option to turn them off but i feel that done correctly, they would add more depth into the game.

Some of these monsters would be more attracted to certain types of ships, like a Space Leech that feeds off of ships with "High Life Force" aka. Colony Ships. Other ones could include "Rust Monsters" that favor more expensive ships. To make them more permanent, you could have them occasionally spawn or have them inhabit and appear from a planet.

Events would be more difficult to implement; you would have to make them preventable. The obvious solution to getting rid of Space Monsters would be military escorts and patrols. But for events, you would probably have to require new technology.

Either way, both implemented properly can definitely make games more interesting.

Doom for the poor chumps your flagship led the monster too...

Did you forget the anomalies that spawned into space monsters!!

"Hi let me just take a look at this anomaly..... AAAAAGGGGHH Noooooooo a Spaceshark..... RUN!!!!!"

The only way I would want to see space monsters is if they were an event that didn't have any specific interaction with the map/units/planets. A splash screen announcing that space monsters were discovered and the galaxy will face a x% reduction in trade for a period of time would not be too bad, or even a good/newt/evil decision event. But the last thing I want is some random monster popping up on the map and messing with my ships or planets.

Besides, there are enough issues with time scaling where one turn is a week. It would be silly to have a creature be able to travel interstellar distances in such short time periods.

It would be cool if you could capture space monsters and use them to attack emmeny's

If they're anything like the random monsters from MastersOfOrion, I'm all for 'em.

I would like the OPTION to have monsters in the game. Better yet, I would like the option that would allow you to add monsters of varying degrees of difficulty when and if you decide to. This would allow those of us who have won a game to have one, last blow out battle against desperate odds to save the galaxy we have conquered!

Space Eels are best served raw!!

I bet if u had a poll saying, would u like to see space monsters in GC2 with the option to set them from none to abundant, then 90% plus would say yes!

What say the boo boys (and girls to be fair) to that.

YES YES YES YES

sign me up!!

Monc34

Space monsters should have the same role that Alpha Centauri's worms. Dangerous aliens scrounging along the map, you can capture some, you destroy the others. The more technology and population increase in the galaxy, the more they are powerful. Because... it's all linked... Because [put storyline element here related to space monster].

From looking in the game folders, there's a space monster splash screen already in them. I haven't gone through the individual ship files enough, I haven't gotten bored enough yet, but there might very well be one in there.

In any case, that splash screen is using up several kbytes of my 125 GB hard drive. I demand they be put in!

For those interested, its in the Gfx folder of the main GalCiv2 folder, and is named Event_spacemonster.png.

yeah! bring back the space shark!

I remember those really well, they were cool. Also the crystalline entity and various others from MOO2 would be spot on. crystalline entity anyone? or how about a huge world muching space slug with an aversion to sodium chloride cystal laser thingummy gun?

I'm in for the Space Monster. As a former player of MOO2, having space monsters really adds the spice factor to the game. I would love to see it in GalCiv2 too.

monster types, derived from MOO2

Space Dragon - 8 phsors Eye, 1 Dragon Breath
Space Amoeba - Caustic Slime
Space Hydra
Space Eel - Plasma Flux, Lightning Field
Space Crystal - Crystal Ray, 3 Death Spores
Guardian - 2 Death Ray, 10 Particle Beam, 2 Plasma Torpedo, Achilles Targeting Unit, Battle Scanner, Inertial Stabilizer, Multi-Wave ECM Jammer, Automated Repair Unit, Hard Shields, Lightning Field, Rangemaster Unit

But since we're talking about galciv2, it should be a bit different, to be more original right?

Space Shark, already mentioned... in galciv1
Sentinel, sort of like a Guardian, but it's humanoid, has lots of powerful attacks.
Space Bees/Bugs - attacks in huge numbers/swarm,
Moon Monster - Monster that looks and behaves like a moon, floats around a planet, but will attack anything that goes close to it.
Ghost Ships - This adds some horror element to the game in which unmanned lifeless floating battle-scarred, damanged spaceships come to lights up to attack the life-manned spaceships, this encounter should extremely be rare...
Space Leech - feeds on ships electrical energy, will attach itself to ships to drain energy off the ships, while ship's shield, hp deteriorates.
Space Siren - these space monsters have an irrisistable sound frequency that hypnotizes captains and sailors into navigating close to it, causing the ships to crash land into a 0 class dead planets.

I have played galciv1 extensively and i think the space monsters are great!

Reading all these posts i see a few against the idea, but they do not give valid reasons why they don't like them.

There is no reason to loose your flagship at all, the creatures never attack on their first turn. Also in Galciv1 units can attack one square beyond their movement points but this is fixed in Galciv2 which would further reduce the threat from space monsters.

One annoying thing with them though is their single mindedness. They can be very determined to attack a certain target while ignoring perfectly jucy targets that are in range. Fix that problem and they would be awesome!

YES! YES and YES! Space monster will be GREAT! I never played GCI but played Master of Orion long ago and they have space monsters too. They were great and simply.

-A super strong and dangerous space monster will appear at random location in the galaxy
-Run a straight but random direction across the galaxy.
-To make is simple, the monster will behave like a huge, single but very powerful ship.
-It's movement will be slow like 2-3 parsec per turn so that your ships can escape or you can move your fleets to attack it before it reach a space station or planet
-Anything planet, space stations, small fleets and ships in its path not strong enough in defence/attack will be destroy.
-Only until you create a powerful enough fleet can you destroy the monster.
-If no race is strong enough at the moment, the monster will move a certain number of squares in the galaxy (like 1/3 to half the length) and then disappear.
- The GNN will announce the appearance of the monster.

It really make the game more exciting and eventful

Space monsters sound interesting but I would prefer the terror star! I hope they plan on bringing it back on the second expansion or something....

I liked 'em in MOO2. They were a great way to make sure that high quality planets weren't populated very early on in the game, and the planets were a good reward for those who were able to defeat the critters.

I would also say YES, but only if it was similarly handled as MOO2. Having a tough monster defending a planet or system with a high quality would add to GC2.

Just my 2 cents

@ topic:
i would like some space-monsters

Never played GC1 either so I don't have experience with what they bring to the game but I can get a pretty good idea based on what I've read in some past comments made by GC1 players. I think it would add a little something to the mix and the idea itself is definitely probable in terms of something like space monsters lurking in the cold depths of space.

They were a great way to make sure that high quality planets weren't populated very early on in the game, and the planets were a good reward for those who were able to defeat the critters.

I'd totally forgotten the monsters-as-guards thing and I second Samsquanch's take here. Plus I really like seeing Bubbles as an icon for titled nobility

I wouldn't mind seeing space monsters making a comeback either.