you would think they would acttually go to work and fix the bug issues that are years old.

You say that as if no multiplayer is a bad thing.

GalCiv 2 has been designed from the ground up as a Single Player game. What exactly would the Diplomacy ability do in a multiplayer game of GalCiv 2?

GalCiv 3 may have multi-player, but this is the last expansion for GalCiv 2 and it isn't going to have multiplayer.



That's a bet I wouldn't make if I were you...

Yep I agree with you there, Alpha Centauri had a lot of good features and keyboard short cuts that GC2 would benefit from, particularly the "go to" destination.

There are few improvements i`d like to see in the interface and the game play, but i doubt we will see them in the TA update. Would be nice to see some of the non - agressive game play options beefed up, as it can get a little too Invade & conquer oriented.

1. Would be nice to see which "tech & remaining weeks to discovery" you are currently researching when in the "Colony Management" view screen for each planet... this way you can cycle through your planets whilst altering the "military, social and research" spending and get instant feedback on how this will effect the "discovery" speed of thecurrent tech. Also include the "current tech" being researched in the "Civilisation Manager - Colonies" screen... so that you get quick feed back on how your "spending" decisions, effect the research time to the next "discovery".

2. Ship Experience: Would be nice to see this included with the other ship information when you click on a ship(appears on the right in the main galaxy window). Otherwise you have to double click on each ship to get a separate "pop-up" window to fins the info.

3. Espionage: All though this has been improved under DA, there is still plenty of scope for improved game play options as in Alpha Centauri. Some of these options would only appear if you have "researched" further up a spy-espionage tree. Thus, when you place your spy on an enemy planet, you would have a choice of options, dependant on your "spy tech level".
Options could include:
Sabotage - Military / Social / Research / Economic (with an option to destroy, delay, disrupt, assasinate scientists etc.

Steal: Techs, Money, Research Points, Influence points

Blame another "race": set up another race for your deeds.

Reduce Morale or take over planet: Have to be big credit cost, low % chance of success, require highest "spy tech level" to attempt. Option of an Espionage Module for "Influence SS", would improve % chance of Espionage if fitted and enemy planet was within sphere of influence.

The more damaging choices would have a lower % of success or higher chance of capture etc. The higher your "spy tech" level the higher the chance of you succeeding. You could add a financial cost fee against some of the options and / or pay a fee to recover your spy after "an operation". If you choose not to, you loose your spy if you are successful or not. Should be an option to make a clean getaway (for a fee) or try to blame another race (% chance of being caught doing this etc.. for which there should be serious consequences for the "Spies race" ie: Fines, Loss of influence, loss of treaties, Diplomatic loss, WAR.

Not sure how the AI would play the "Spy options", but it would make fun gameplay for the human player. The "Spy - sub tree" levels would have to be quite expencive to research, so both AI & human player would have to consider how much they want to expend on gaining espionage options.

4. Survey: Currently, anomalies and space junk provide the human player a big boost in the game. Would be nice to tone the "bonuses" down a little or make the bonuses better but harder to gain IE: Introduce a "Survey" subtree off the Sensor Tech tree, which you have to research to unlock / discover some of the Anomalies/SpaceJunk in the game. Prior to research the anomalies/space junk carnt be surveyed/unlocked or may be even seen on the screen? But once researched (improved/advanced survey module fitted) they can be surveyed/unlocked with a bigger/better bonus/tech discovery etc.
This could also apply to "pre-cursor" tiles on planets. (A bit like the "terraforming" tiles options).
If you research to the highest level in the "survey sub tree" you could have access to a "Planetary/Galaxy tech building" that once built, unlocks/discovers/provides bonus "pre-cursor" tile/s and/or technology or space ship etc or major pre-cursor "Galactic Achievement" that could reshape the game if you or your enemy discover it on their planet.
As with the espionage, the "survey tech tree" would be expencive to research, but might prove a worthwhile option, depending on your game play. It stops the game becoming mainly an invade / conquer strategy.
I wouldnt think this would be too hard to code into the game

5. Planetary Resources: This is an option i would like added to the game.
At the moment, we colonise or conquer new planets, improve their PQ, terraform, build up populations and construct ships, buildings, research techs. Apart from planetary moral, there is no impact on the planet.
I would like to see the planets resources dwindle, or polution or production decrease over time unless you research a sub tree of "Planetary Improvements". This would have a big impact on the game, as you would be left with the choice of "stripping" a planet bare of its resources as quickly as possible, before it decreases in PQ or "resources" or you choose to reduce "production- research" to increase the longevity of the planet etc. By introducing planetary resources into the game, players could use various options of play ( this could involve Race Modifiers, as some races are less industrial, militaristic or destructive). You would be left with the option of husbanding your planets existing resources or researching "ECO-techs" to increase/improve/recycle or extend your planets PQ/resources or conquering more planets in order to maintain your Races expansion.
Each planet could have a variable amount of resources (choice in game options)which the player may or may not know about (might have to research tech to have an accurate idea of PR (planetary resources)). The PR would then decline dependant on some of the variables i have outlined above. Eventually, without any action on the players part, the planet would exhaust its PR or become too polluted or toxic to produce any thing as well as support/feed/water the population etc.
So it could come as a shock that your PQ 18 Planet that you have built up suddenly starts turning into a toxic dustbin! (And looks like it from space etc).
Alternatively, the "Survey" tech tree outined in Para 4 "Survey" might unlock or discover "pre-cursor" technology or a pre-cursor building tile that can reverse/halt or improve your planet's "PR" state. So if your spies find out that another race has discovered or has built/building a "PR" project/tech/building you may wish to intervene, invade, steal, sabotage etc..


Like i said above, all the ideas included from para 1 through 5 are ideas for improving
and extending gameplay. Some might not be practical or achievable, but I would like ti think that there is scope for some of the ideas to be considered or improved upon. For those that havent played Alpha Centauri, take a look, its still a very good game and a lot of the game play in GC2 can be traced back to it.

I'm trying to imagine what multiplayer on this would be like. I get the impression that multiplayer 4X sessions tend to not be popular because of the time it can take to finish a turn in the later part of the game. I'd rather have good AI. RTS and FPS work because you don't have to wait on other people.

Also,
the case for no multiplayer.

On the planet list, there should be an icon to indicate whether a planet is currently habitable or not based on current technology. At the moment, you have to click on the planet to move to it on the map and only then do you see the giveaway red warning icon.

Initial range needs to be scaled down. We get too much too soon. On small galaxies you can already reach most of it at the beginning.

You do? I can see red, yellow, and green habitability icons on planets at any level of view.

Do you mean colonized worlds?

I think that feature is in TA only, if he's still playing DA he wouldn't see them.

NO NO. I said on the Planet LIST which you can pull up on the left. In particular, when you look at unowned planets, it gives the class but not whether it is a type you can yet colonise. So you can get list cluttered with planets that look promising when you're looking for one to colonise, but only as you inspect them individually by clicking the planet on the list which then jumps you to the location on the map, that you can see on the map that you do not yet have the corect technology for it. This can get tedious.

As well as having the red warning icon show up on the appropriate planet list items just like it does next to each planet on the map, perhaps we need an option or tab to filter out currently uncolonisable planets or show "unowned and colonisable".

@Mad - those are some very good suggestions. I think they would add much to the game.

What ever happened to the January or December release? If we had decided to go for December, would the release date of been at the end of January?

Can we have atleast one more beta before it gets released?....Pleeeeease?

Another beta's scheduled next week, I hear. I don't know how many more beyond that, though. I do hope we get some tech tree tweaking by the final beta patch, though.

I think they are just busy as publishers of Sins of a Solar Empire, which will be released in February.

But I do hope they make it with the "Preview" release of TA before the end of the month, as promised...

In Brad's opening for this thread, he told us they'd decided to postpone RTM until the end of March.



With over eight weeks left, I surely hope to see at least two or three beta updates. I've slowed way down on my current game in hopes it will be compatible with the next update, which hopefully will have a smoother economy and maybe some resource mining modules for the Thalans.

Yes, a good solid helping of that.

It's terrible? How much time have You already delayed this game? If I have bought this game on November, how long will I still wait? You had told that this game was to be released on december... This isn't honest at all.

You're obviously missing something here. "How much time have you already delayed this game?" you ask. There's been no delaying at all. It's being worked on. Polished. Chiseled.

Of course it's honest. There was even a big vote on the thing, where Stardock asked what the customers wanted; A december release or more polish and work on the game. Like it's been said: Customers can forgive a late release, but never a faulty game.

While I'm not a democrat in any way, this is one of the instances where "democracy" absolutely wins. A majority of us wanted a better game, later, than a less finished game now.

All of us that have paid for the game have had the option of being active participants in the fine tuning of the game, which is the whole point of a beta.

I want a game that I can play through the next 5 years, where each game is different from the last. This beta has had some risky additions, not one tech tree but 12 tech trees to balance, which have lead to economy tweaks, maintainince tweaks (good news in my book) so it's got to be right or it was all for nothing.

I'd like to see modding turned on and have access to the editors, however I can see why they have disabled modding, probably right too.

If the game was a pre-order in a brick-n-mortar store and you still hadn't been able to play it since November when you paid for it, I'd back your comment fully. However, you have the ability to play the game, albeit not complete. Even if they had shoved it out the door in December as they planned, it would have been very rough.

I'd hate to have seen your rant about buying a game that "still is is beta" after it's launch date. At least any issues it has are due to it being still in beta.