I would like to see a user poll on 1.3

Yea, my thinking exactly. I didn't want to be the first to say something, but now you've broke the ice. Personally, I don't like it. The game is too hard now. I can live with the tightening up of cash, approval, and population, but the way they made it so hard to forge alliances just kills me. The fixes are nice though.

Play on an easier setting? Or change your stratagey? Those would be easier and still give you room to develope onto the higher levels.

stop complaining.... 1.3 ROCKS.

The game is too hard now. I can live with the tightening up of cash, approval, and population, but the way they made it so hard to forge alliances just kills me. The fixes are nice though.

I like the changes. It makes mid-game more interesting and forces better decisions when it comes to planet development.

The ease that alliances were previously made was, in fact, a bug or a combination of a few....IIRC they were never intended to be that easy to make. I've finally turned alliance victories back on and even then only had one victory come about after I had reduced every other civ to rubble; it was faster to forge that last alliance (which cost me nothing) than to declare war yet again.

I could stand for splitting the difference. Just got to stock exchanges.
Build enough of them and you are ok. I am calling 1.3 "StockCiv."

We will have a poll. Though it'll probably be about 1.31 since we want to take care of a couple of exploits.

I like the economy and morale changes. Even though it makes the players life harder, I have to actually adjust my spending below 100% unlike 1.2 where I just put it to 100 and never went back to the screen.

a couple of exploits

Please, please fix the farm bonus tile curse/exploit! I really like the way the farms were changed so that an average planet can now make it to 19 b with two advanced farms instead of 15 b population with one; but ATM I can't use the farm bonus tiles for fear of population overload after I upgrade!   

Sounds like A debate forming,heh.  I have to say I like the economy better now. Seems like a smoother transition, from not having to completely dropp taxes for 100% approval at the beginning. To increasing them incrementaly over time, not jerking the rate way up and down. Which would make real citizens drag you out of the capitol feet first. Later in the game it takes longer to get to that money making comfort zone, so you have to keep watching your spending longer. Just my 2bc worth.

Thanks Stardock!! GCII Just keeps getting better.  

i love it i am happy about the patch 1.3 rocks

Please, please fix the farm bonus tile curse/exploit! I really like the way the farms were changed so that an average planet can now make it to 19 b with two advanced farms instead of 15 b population with one; but ATM I can't use the farm bonus tiles for fear of population overload after I upgrade!

I liked farms better before.

I liked the 15B with a single Advanced Farm, and have no desire to keep a population of 19B happy with the new entertainment structure.

And I don't like the tax hit with only 12B, and I don't like using more than 1 farm or entertainment per planet.

The least they could have done would have been enabling that last of the farm techs.

I agree that the bug/exploit should be fixed asap. It is a real pain not to be able to control population on captured planets that have utilized every farm bonus tile.

mistake

Well, it is a different game. Now I am wondering if I should go back to 1.2.

IMO -- nope, 1.3 is a much better game and i'm quite happy with it. Is it perfect? -- Did they add everything I would like? -- No and No -- but 1.3 rocks!

Thanks again Stardock

Has anyone noticed a dropoff in the value of anomolies? I used to count on the income from my survey ships to fuel my colonization, but now all they seem to find in 1.3 are bonuses (e.g. your population growth will be increased by 1%). I haven't found a single anomoly worth money in the 1.3 version, and I used to run across them about 1/3 of the time. Granted 2500 BC was a huge bonus when it was ten times my weekly income in the game, but it definitely funded my colonial consolidation leading into the mid-game, and paid for the survey ships that conducted exploration as well. There was even the strategic intent of getting your survey vessels into alien space to get the $ before they did. It does seem like the other civs are poorer in this version, but I am as well. I suppose that it balances out, and I genuinely appreciate the spirit of perfectionism that went into this patch's development - but I still miss the cash, or at least some of it!

1.3 is HARD.

And I love it.

Has anyone noticed a dropoff in the value of anomolies

At first I thought I did. Then I started running across them and have gotten 4 2500bc anomalies and several of the other cash anomalies. Only got 2 1000bc anomalies for a bit though and it certainly did affect my strategy.

The anomalies are definitely keeping my economy afloat and letting me stay competitive.

I'm playing a gigantic map with abundant stars, planets, and habitable planets. But set anomalies to common ( don't want the AIs to get too many ).

I found 3 anomalies with 2500. It was the way I was able to stay afloat.
I'm afraid I won't be so lucky next time.

But you have to build survey ships to go looking fairly early.

The number per types of anomolies in any given game can change. I have had games with very few cash anomolies. Just the luck of the draw.

I can understand the rationale of not wanting people to run at 80% taxation and the like (although it is included as an option...) but I think that part of the way it is being approached is really making other parts of gameplay frustrating.

What I am particularly referring to is that way that morale improvements are so weak. This means that the 300% farm improvements are completely wasted as it is just too difficult to maintain the happiness. The same applies to two 100% improvements (one is wasted) or even one 100% improvement on a capital. If these bonuses weren't in the game then it might be different but it seems irritating to have a "bonus" that actually is something you try and avoid using.

I also wonder whether the way this is executed gives too much power to civilisations with good starting morale abilities but that might just be me.

Wouldn't it be better just to increase the negative morale effects of higher taxation rates rather than doing such wholesale changes to morale?

1.3 seems balanced to me. Different, but balanced. My current economy was just fine until I started conquering the Korx. Every planet I took was primarily industrial, which really is placing a drag on my cash! So, do I slow down my advance, or redevelop my captured worlds, or kill 'em anyway, or declare peace while I think about this?

Ok, there were complaints that the late game was boring before, right? Not any more!

I love this game, and they are already working on 1.31? I love these guys!

It seems a mixed bag on opinions regarding the changes in 1.3. I thought more people would be feel as I do, but I guess I may be the odd man out here.

I suppose that's fine if Stardock feels they should make the game "harder", but I think they went overboard and broke some things in the process. Entertainment upgrades make no sense. Alliances are broken. There's just no way to get a race to become "close". In the game I'm playing, I've had 2 races out of 9 become close and only because they are the same ethical alignment I believe. I did not set up any trade routes with them or do anything else to improve relations. I set up all my trade routes with the Iconians and gave them a bunch of techs and ships and no matter how many times they said they are improving relations, they would not become close. I agree it shoudn't be easy to forge alliances, but it shouldn't be impossible to sway a race your way. That thing with the farms is a pain. BTW, it does correct when you restart the game so it's not really exploitable. The cursor control is really twitchy now. If any ship/fleet is not in some sort of mode, the cursor refuses to stick to a new one. You have to make sure everything is accounted for. That's a drag because you'll select one ship and another will move in its place.

For what it's worth, I think the positives about 1.3 outweigh any negatives, and Stardock deserve all the credit they get for there commitment to improving the game. I'm certainly having an interesting game (suicidal, gigantic, abundant everything, 7 opponents) so far.

In the past I have played many games, and tried many different planet build strategies - mostly to good effect. This is what sets GC2 apart from the rest of the TBS genre IMO - you can use multiple different strategies to win the game, even at the highest levels. Most other TBS games require you to follow a very repetitive, boring formula to even manage to compete at high difficulty levels.

However, the complete nerfing of morale (and farm output) has removed a significant portion of this replayability from the game. It is now not viable to pursue a high population planet build strategy, and I'm not sure that constantly having an empire made up exclusively of planets with 19 billion population will help maintain a level of interest in the game.

Oh yeah, if you save / quit / reload - the bonus food bug corrects itself (at least until the next farm upgrade). Not ideal, and a bug that needs to be fixed for sure, but it is a workaround to the problem, and not so much of an issue now that the first turn nil production problem has gone.

Ditto Mag. While not exactly perfect 1.3 is a better game over all.

I third what Mag. has mentioned! A little sad that we now seem pushed to one method of playing the game, but overall i love the changes to the game in 1.3.

My only concern is with DA coming up in a month or so killing the replayability of your game may be shooting oneself in ones foot?? That said i still haven't got my butt out of Challenging yet so i should be playing for some time to come i hope

However, the complete nerfing of morale (and farm output) has removed a significant portion of this replayability from the game. It is now not viable to pursue a high population planet build strategy, and I'm not sure that constantly having an empire made up exclusively of planets with 19 billion population will help maintain a level of interest in the game.

Agrees with statement 100%