Just wanted to drop some general Comments about GalCiv II, maybe someone in charge reads things here once in a while.
Overall I like the game, theres been a real shortage of 4x Space games last 10 years and even MOO1 and 2 have been getting pretty dull of late. Lots of depth, difficulty is not based on 7 alien races all launching themselves at you at the same time. I got espeically tired of MOO2's habit of your closest allies for NO reason declareing war and 1 second later your high value system is being attacked by 250 ships. Theres none of that and thats good-thanks.
Couple of things I find curious(not the only things) but just a couple that stand out in my mind.
-The Map system. I have mixed feelings about the way the galaxy is layed out. Its not....all bad and I am getting used to it, but atm in not overly sold on the wide-open format. IMO its a little hard on fleet management and imo its really quite easy to lose track of ships esp on the huge maps. The map does not even show for example-planets that have ships docked-which muddles things even further. In short I find ship and fleet management(the UI) that is, leave a little to be desired.
The map sort of ties in to another thing I noticed almost right away.
Starbases. The economic bases are a great idea both conceptually and practically. I like . Military starbases otoh, Dont seem....very practicall for several reasons. One, its takes a huge investment of time and resouces to build them up-even one semi decent milbase is a lot of work. Secondly, and this is more important. Due to the 'wide-open' nature of the map, when at war, the enemy simply bypasses them and they dont really serve as either a front line of defence or a last one for that matter. Since they dont really serve as planetary defenders if your (world) is under attack and theres a milbase right next door, the enemy can simply ignore the base and conquer and the world anyhow. Also, milbases DO have a radius of effect yes, but they dont serve to slow down(or engage\hinder enemy fleets in transit either) an enemy when they can simply steer around them and head wherever they want. This seems counter-intuitive. A space-faring empire would not build expensive static defensive bases if there presumed enemies can simply ignore them at will. This is more or less what I see happening with milbases. They should exert SOME sort of zone of control that actually makes them a impediment to an enemy. Also worlds that are directly protected by a Milbase(say within 3 hexes? cant be landed on while the base is active.-seems to make sense. Nor does it seem reasonable that we cant capture enemy starbases.
Influence Bases, again a neat concept, make the(enemy?-or allied worlds) want to join you. A way to win a bloodless victory. Good idea, tho I must confess I find it ...a little easy to win over worlds this way. Overall I like these bases but maybe(?) its a little to easy to win useing them. All it seems to take is 2 bases beaming feelgood propaganda and 'Wheel of fortune re-runs' into a system you think would be better off under your control and its yours
Bases and AI lack of territorial enforcement. Also related to all these bases is another thing that to me, stands out. The AI does not recognize territories controlled by others very well. This works both ways too. Some games has the AI placeing incredibly weak (ie useless) Milbases in MY systems. From a realism PoV anyone would consider such an act even from an ally to be either downright suspicous or an act of war in any other case. However in galciv I have placed Milbases and influence bases right in my neighbors home system with no ill-effects. IOW as long as your on more or less good terms diplomatically speaking(that is-not actually at war), the AI lets you get away with actions that I would consider an act of overt or covert warfare. I have yet to suffer any ill-effects from such actions. There is no way I can think of to either prevent an AI from placeing bases wherever they feel like or players for that matter, nor can you force them to leave once there placed, by diplmotic means. Sames goes for ships as well. There is no for example, 'Your warships have violated my space-remove at once' option. Now in cases where territory is contested then influence could have a major impact in determineing where and how you can move. In areas that are firmly under your control and influence-it hardly seems sensible that warships of other powers roam around at will-placeing installations and so on.
All in all a good game, has to lots to recommend it