Confession..Never finished a full game

from GalCiv2 Forums
Yup, its true. Its a really bad habit. But I find myself never completely finishing a game. Aside from that tempting Ctrl+N option to get an optimal placing/setting, I find that I get bored too easily with any single game.

I more often than not do a Gigantic map, occasional habitables, normal research, common stars and tight clusters with all nine civs at normal. I usually play the terrans along a neutral trading strategy(though ive tried all the other civs at one point or another), and usually stick with universalist party and diplomacy, luck, morale/loyalty, research and trade bonuses. i stay out of all wars by building good relations with most civs on trade routes and the occasional tech trade all the while slowly advancing through the tech tree and building/upgrading my fleet. To the point that i can hold my own with the top civs of that particular game and then ill jump in and mess things up a bit by taking a weaker neutral civ to stay in the top five or to get revenge on someone who bullied me earlier but who i can match now.

Problem is that, any single game takes so long to get to that point that i find myself bored and ready to start over with another game. As if just the initial planet rush and staying out of conflict in the begining are the most exciting of the game. Until now I have not even tried anything above normal intelligence except for a few games with a challenging hostile drengin or neutral acrean to try and get out of this slump. but every time i do half way through the game i can see that theres no way to beat them and give up.

For instance, my last really interesting game i had all the settings i had mentioned before and those two challenging civs. I had taken out the Yor fairly early, because they were close by and weak and then not too long afterwards had the remainder of the torians surrender to me from a brutal drengin war effectively giving me twice as many planets as any other civ though only third in influence. I beefed up defenses on my new planets as they were now closer to the drengin and researched/upgraded as many ships as i could afford to match the drengin as best i could with phasors and duranthium armor. The drengin were continuing to blow through the other civs (or trying too) the drath surrendered all their worlds to me before the drengin got 'em and the altarians were next, however no worlds had been invaded yet and they hadnt surrendered. I jumped in and took two minor civs from the drengin to try and hault their influence which just pissed them off as well as a few strategically placed maxed-out influence bases which i had to destroy to keep from going to war with them. it was too late though, after keeping them at bay with some groveling and tech trading they had enough and came after me. after only a few turns and half my fleet gone, i saw that my ships were doing no damage at all and that there was no way to keep my worlds and stay alive. game over.

so long story short(sorry, didnt realize how long this was going to end up and i doubt anyone will even read the whole thing), am i missing something in my strategy or initial game settings that is keeping me from a truely exciting and challenging game? i have a feeling that its the fact that i try and go with the terrans all the time who seem to start off so slow? back track a bit, i dont want a diplomatic or research victory cause those are just boring..so i suppose ultimately im going for a masked neutral military victory. i read some posts about people saying that the top intelligence levels are too easy and i wonder to myself how they even got passed normal?!

Ok, enough of my ranting...any input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
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10,203 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
hows this 'bumping' thing work anyway....?
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
try a smaller world i find those alot more fun.

Whats also great fun. Is a medium/large - Then lowest setting for everything except anomilies and reserch which are at max.

It basicly makes a map with your starting planet and your 2nd planet.

And occasionly a minor race.
Its alot of fun and it really tests the AI.

i also never really finished a game when i first got it , i hate doing clean up
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also, play at a higher difficulty. It will make it more fun when you have to fend off troop transports.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Definitely try the higher difficulties. The AI factions will do much more - for instance, they colonize more effectively, giving you a run for your money (literally!) in the early game.

To keep the game interesting, set little side goals for yourself. I have given myself tasks like 'Adopt a Disadvantaged Minor', where I try to keep a minor faction alive throughout the game; try to get one or more planets up to 100 billion population; and my current favorite, try to absolutely max out my trade income by putting all of my trade routes between the same two planets and building 43 econ starbases with trade modules along the route.

And, of course, play in the Metaverse. Honestly, the lure of forum bling is pretty much the only thing that keeps me going in the last stages of the game when victory is a foregone conclusion and its just a matter of point and click and point and click and point and click...
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I still play mainly on challanging and with a decently roomy galaxy (usually 4 AIs instead of all of 'em) as I'm still figuring out how I like to do things, but I find that the games are usually pretty interesting for me *right* up until I either am totally done for (hmm I have my secondary starting world and this class 5 I colonized just to keep the AI out of my area...) or have hit the "breakout" point where whomever I'm at war with has smashed their fleets upon my defences to the point that I can blitz most of their territory with what few attack-worthy craft I have on hand and just never let them recover until it becomes a foregone conclusion (I've fought off AIs with roughtly 75% of the galaxy in their control until I could catch up my ship tech and put them on their heels, but I've never seen the AI able to do the same to me at this setting) at which point I too just start a new game...

I think on higher difficulties I'd be more likely to actually stamp out every last damned colony if I'm going for conquest, but I haven't wanted to bump it up much further until I get a better understanding of how the AI is making its choices and how to keep them from getting way out of hand.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There's a common problem with sandbox strategy games...it becomes obvious you've won long before you've fulfilled the victory conditions. I probably only bother finishing 1/4 of my games, those ones where another giant springs up and by the time it's blatantly all over there's not much work left to be done anyway. It works both ways too...it can be obvious you're not going to win long before the final blow is struck, which seems closer to the problem you're suggesting.

Either way I reckon the solution is the same - either accept it (after all, does it really matter if you finish the games, unless you're playing the metaverse?) or switch to smaller maps and/or less habitable planets where the "boring obvious phase" is much shorter.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also, play at a higher difficulty. It will make it more fun when you have to fend off troop transports.
My confession is that I'm addicted to the "Cakewalk" difficulty setting. heh.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, it does become obvious when you've won and it seems like a tedious mop-up to finish the game. But, on Metaverse games, I want that final score so I see it through. Gives you motivation to finish. Otherwise, I totally relate to what you are saying.

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Definately a valid point that just about all game similar to this have the same "time to get the mop and bucket" problem, as the speed at which you can finish things off doesn't really markedly increase even after you gain a definative advantage, except in a couple cases such as MOO2's planetkiller (exploding everything you didn't already control was usually pretty quick. TAKING everything could get tedious if whoever's left had decent troop bonuses and are just out of ships. At least to me... I hate transports... I like Influence spamming... Something like Mideval:TW though, no such option for really accelerating things and similar restrictions on how quickly you can really grab the land even with no opposition (since they'll just give you a rebellion or four "just because" if you go too fast).

There isn't much I can think of that would fix that, except perhaps if at a certain point you're at war with someone and their military rating is below a certain point and there's at least a certain difference between the two, you get the option to demand surrender (which they'll actually do at some point, based on your diplomacy, if you have 400+ military (or 4000+, whatever sick number you have by the time you know it is over) and they have 4).
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
GC2 is my first 4x game and I'm not up on all the terminology. I was wondering what they mean by "sandbox" game, just curious.

Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I wouldn't have used sandbox myself, but others seem to so I've tagged along.

Stuff like Sim City, that's *real* sandbox where there's no set objective but those you set for yourself (box full of sand, make what you want ) I guess it's similar to non-campaign modes in 4X games where you control exactly what sort of game universe you play in and decide your own objectives (victory conditions).
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have only finished a couple of games out of maybe 30 or 40. But I have come to play on Medium maps with 6 or more other civs, with most everything else common or abundant. I play on Crippling or Masochistic and the games are always tough. Unlike Civ4 where I would often get a research win, in GC2 I always win (or get close) to a domination win. It just makes more sense to kill aliens I guess.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There isn't much I can think of that would fix that


Once you reach the stage where nobody else can beat you need either entirely internal or entirely external forces to come into play to keep things interesting.

Example of each

Internal - in Rome Total War it became harder to control your empire as it grew. It was never really a problem in that game, but that's the essence of the idea.

External - time limits, whether they don't pretend to be anything else, or they're disguised with a universe relevant reason which makes things continually tougher for you and you alone. Actually GalCiv *does* potentially have one of these...that random event that makes one race into "superbeings" and continually increments their abilities. I can't say I've ever noticed an impact from it, but potentially it could be very nasty if it were sped up, or if it happened to your closest rivals in a tight situation.

I can't say I've ever seen either type of idea implemented well.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I tend to lose interest as well. (mid-game) Recently, I have found that if I limit my playing to one hour spurts. I can finish the Game. (Anymore, then I get Galciv burn out.)

(Marshalloneal) Has a couple of excellent point's. Far better then my limit your time playing suggestion.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree with what was said here earlier about playing in the Metaverse, and wanting to see that final score. When I first started(a whole 3 weeks ago), I played a gigantic on beginner. Big mistake, I got bored and stopped playing after I obviously had the AI civs dominated, and didn't feel like cleaning up all their planets.

I do wish there were some more diplomacy options, like demanding a surrender. Or refusing to see their embassador if you want them to feel the pain. Or boarding one of their megafreighters and demanding conkers.