Some thoughts on the game

I just got Galciv2 gold, and after playing a few games I thought I'd share my thoughts with you all.

First impressions: Wow! The whole game feels so slick, graphics great, interface great, everything is so smooth I'll never be able to go back to SE5!

Second impression: I just got my ass handed to me by the AI, and it mocked me before doing so

Third impression: Ok, so there is some room for improvement after all. First of is the whole espionage stuff, it just doesn't work well. I need to spend a load of money to be able to see what’s on an enemy planet. Makes sense. Unless I want to place a spy there, suddenly it's for free! And it's so simplistic it doesn't actually add any strategic depth to the game IMO.

Second are the planetary improvements. The basics like factories etc. are all there but the special buildings seem a bit boring. All they do is add a few bonus percentages here and there. Even the trade goods and galactic achievements! Come to think of it, the racial traits and resources are also just % modifiers. All that stuff should give my empire something UNIQUE, not just a higher modifier on some statistic.

There is a few other small things but my biggest gripe with the game is actually the tech tree! It's so uninspired as to actually be detrimental to the game experience. It doesn't feel like I'm researching some exciting new technology, I'm just busy upgrading my statistics some more. Like there isn't enough bonus% going around with the resources, special buildings, etc. The ridiculous robot doesn't really help either. The campaign deals with heavy stuff like genocide, and my research robot sings me 'old McDonald had a farm' or says that it doesn't really know/care what we just discovered? Unfortunately just about every other game in the genre is a lot better than galciv2 with respects to the research tree. Go play some lost empires or SE5 stardock!

Anyway, just my opinions

Maybe I sound a bit critical, but that's just because I love the game so much!

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Hi!

the special buildings seem a bit boring. All they do is add a few bonus percentages here and there. Even the trade goods and galactic achievements! Come to think of it, the racial traits and resources are also just % modifiers.

my biggest gripe with the game is actually the tech tree! It's so uninspired as to actually be detrimental to the game experience.

Second impression: I just got my ass handed to me by the AI, and it mocked me before doing so

So what would you like to have: fancy techs and achievements, or the AI that beats you squarely? Because the "simplicity" of the game allows the AI to play so good. Each fanciness you miss would need a special code for the AI to handle it properly. And that piece of code would probably require the same amount of man-hours to develop as a code for planet development, despite being used in only one game out of 10.

AFAIK there's only one AI developer, but there's endless set of stuff that could be added to the game. The Space Empires (I)V game is an example of how that stuff can completely unballance the game, and made its AI a laugh, when compared to the AI in GC-2.

Most of us want to add something to the game. But there's a hard fact that we don't need to be programmed to use that, and AI does.

BR, Iztok

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At the beginning it may appear like a build-up-your-production-and-tech-step-by-step game, but if you go further and try to increase the levels you will often wonder about the AI giving you a lot of challenge.
What I mostly like is, that no session is equal to another and there are so many different ways and know-how to get to victory while the AI will always keep you vigilant. The AI is quite smart (well, except when it is sending its troops without protection...hmmmm).
With many other games, I often had the impression to get used to them and after a while to already know what to do next and at the end it just gets boring.
With GalCiv2 (DA) and its latest updates it is somehow different, in my opinion...I'm playing this game more then a year now and I've still to work on it...

Cheers

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I think in many ways this is the best PC game I've ever played - and that is because of the AI. It feels a bit like playing a good, complex board game against other people (that you can't see).

With many (most?) games, what happens next is pre-programmed in. With this game what happens next is dependent on what you choose to do - and what they choose to do.

So I agree that the planetary improvements etc aren't that whizzy - but that isn't the point. You don't buy this game to marvel at lifelike graphics or state of the art special effects. You buy it for the intelligence that went into designing it and the intelligence that goes into playing it!

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So what would you like to have: fancy techs and achievements, or the AI that beats you squarely? Because the "simplicity" of the game allows the AI to play so good.

Ah.. fair point. You are all right of course. I can't help but feel a tad dissapointed that all the different fancy options result in the same numbercrunching, but the fun AI does indeed make up for it (it's not perfect though, the demands for techtrade are insane!).

Maybe the next expansion will bring something interesting

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Well, im only going to agree with you on the espionage problem. Other than that, the rest works fine since this is mainly a strategy game, you wont actually win by some bonuses anyways? Even if you have a strong bonus, it shoudn't be ground-breaking enough to give you an extreme advantage on wining the game.

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Serptico, you're right. This is a stratagy game! That's exactly why I think some of the techs/buildings/resources should give you some real strategic options in stead of just upgrading your core abilities. A good example of a tech that does give you more strategic options is the ones you have to research to be able to colonize certain planet types.

Other than that, the speed techs advance at default is way to fast... And the AI is still great fun.

So I agree that the planetary improvements etc aren't that whizzy - but that isn't the point. You don't buy this game to marvel at lifelike graphics or state of the art special effects.

I didn't complain about the graphics!

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Other than that, the speed techs advance at default is way to fast... And the AI is still great fun.

I never play with the tech dev speed on anything other than Very Slow,...and I sort of convert the whole game time scale of weeks to "months" in my head. Even at that, my suspension-of-disbelief is based on a assumption that I don't really want to test by a direct question to Brad - that all (most) of the tech discoveries in GalCiv2 are really the exploitation of Precursor materials rather than normal painstaking research.

Time scale and research speed in Starships Unlimited "feels" much better. I'm still trying to conquer the galaxy there in less than 1000 years after 1st stardrive.

But GalCiv2 is still the more wonderful game.

drrider

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