Want honest truely objective opinion on what the newest gciv 2 expansion is like

from GalCiv2 Forums

Hi I have Gciv 2 gold which has gciv 2 plus dark avator. Im just wandering what the expansion is like? I actually just recently bought sins of a solar empire and while I aint to happy about the lack of the campaign I really like the actual gameplay on huge and medium maps plus multiplayer.

Where gciv 2 is concerned well gciv 2 gold , I havent touched dark avator but the initial gciv 2 I got so far and there were these campaign ai that absolutly owned me . Because of sins though I think Im starting to like the whole colonisation, exploration idea but what I wasnt too sure about with gciv was the fact that the ai colony spammed and it just felt like if I didnt do that fast enough it was game over. Sins has helped me fathom the importance of scouts though and I think I am going to get into gciv 2 again. I also see the latest expansion boasts a campaign editor , I love the idea of being able to make my own fully fledged campaign but please be 100% up front with me about this aspect, i.e what can the campaign editor do? What aspects of capaigns can it not do? Its just I dont want to start modding and after buying find out I cant do x,y and z because of the way the game was deisgned or some other limitation so both praises and critisisms are welcomed and needed.

Just to finally ask , how much better is dark avator than the orig gciv 2 on the gold version and how much better is the twighlight one than dark avator? and are the good guides out there which will help me get better so I can beat the ai with ease eventually. Heres the thing Im a newbie to this genre and while many of you find the ai to easy , the devs tweak it and it just owns me lol

All comments welcome and thanks for reading!

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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The absolutely basic question is: Did you enjoy Galactic Civilizations II? That's because ToA is GC2 with a whole LOT of meat on its bones. And if you enjoy tweaking the game to _any_ degree, you WILL be able to tweak it to that degree. Between the basic Create Your Own Custom Race and Customize Your Opponents (which you would have gotten into extensively in Dark Avatar), and the numerous editors now available, you should find your personal level of investment. About the only thing you can't tweak are the actual mechanics.

And I must say this in order to be as honest as I can be -- despite the fact that there are a number of elements I'm not too crazy about.

This is definitely a game where you will get as much -- or more -- as you put into it.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As objectively as I can be: each race is very unique now. I used to play custom only since I didn't care for any of the races, but now I haven't even made a custom race yet due to the unique flavor of each race. They all have their ups and downs, which is really great for replayability. On the down side, it's way too easy to just trade away all your disabilities and become super powerful due to the situation.

Ie. I play the torians, for example, and I can trade for all sorts of research facilities which negates their crappy researching. If you add this to their natural research %bonuses, they actually turn super powerful which goes against their backstory as they're not supposed to be great at organized learning. As a result, I feel it's more fun to play with Tech Trading off.

It's basically the same game you've been playing with a lot more flavor, so if you've enjoyed Galciv2: DL and DA, then you will very likely enjoy this.

Disclaimer: I haven't played any of the missions in any of the games, I just play sandbox mode.

Edit: Since you asked, Dark avatar adds a new level of complexity to the game with Super Abilities. You can look this up or try it out in game to see what I'm talking about. TA builds on this and gives each race a really unique flavor with different researching paths/buildings/bonuses.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm actually in the same boat as you. A few years back, I played Civilizations III, and then didn't touch 4X games since. Recently, I've made an effort to get back into them again, but, before that, I was primarily playing RTS, RPG, and FPS games.

As to your question:

I bought GalCivII Gold about 2 weeks ago. I played around with it, liked what I saw, and bought the Arnor expansion a short time later. Having played Arnor for the last few days, I don't think I can go back to playing Dread Lords or Dark Avator. The tweaks and changes have altered the game that much. Many of the races still share similar techs, but the tree is ordered differently. Certain races have an easier time getting one tech than another. Also, there are certain technologies that are only available to your race. It really makes a difference during play, and you have to play to your race's strengths.

Frankly, I think the graphical upgrades alone are worth the purchase. One thing that's really prevented me from coming back to Dread Lords or DA are the older ship models. The newer versions look so much better, it's astounding. Stardock really came out with an amazing expansion. Stardock claims that the new models take up less memory. If this is true, you're getting a performance tweak, as well as a graphical upgrade. Of course, if you have a good rig, then this won't be an issue to you.

Another thing I've noticed is that they've cleaned up the inventory in the shipyard. This probably isn't a huge deal to some, but I found it to be a rather nice touch. I have a lot easier time finding the parts I want.

I should warn you that some people have mentioned a few bugs in Arnor expansion. I haven't really noticed anything; it's been pretty stable for me. If stability is a real issue for you, though, you might want to wait a month or two for the patches to iron things out.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually its kinda thanks to sins , I have went back to gciv 2 and am enjoying it :) havent really played even dark avator yet and I probably wont touch the twighlight of the arnor until I have played through the first 2. My reasoning is , say I goto the latest expansion and work back well I dont think it will be the same :)

I must admit Im not too good against the ai, but I am a really persistant gamer and am always collecting them. It wouldnt be the first time I have bought games and went back to them months later and thought "Hey this is actually great" , when I first started playing games and first got my PC it was all FPS games and I feel like gamings like an evolutionary process lol because I then moved onto RPGS after which I am truely lost to the world hehe. Now I am really starting to appreciate strats of the 4x genre

The newer versions look so much better, it's astounding. Stardock really came out with an amazing expansion. Stardock claims that the new models take up less memory. If this is true, you're getting a performance tweak, as well as a graphical upgrade. Of course, if you have a good rig, then this won't be an issue to you.
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I do have a good rig but the way you describe it well it sounds like they have really upgraded the graphics well. I also dont grudge paying for games from sd and sd related games since the people responsible seem to look at things from a end user orientated kind of approach.

As for the bugs well Im hoping with having a semi high end system I should be fine, I bought sins and that has many bugs atm but thus far I havent been affected. The bugs have upset some people but I have read that SD are busy doing a content patch on top of bug fixes and if this is true well Im happy waiting. Thus far I have plenty of faith in the SD people so if I find some minor glitches I think I should be fine waiting for fixes for a time.

It was some of the campaign missions in the very first gciv 2 , where there was like this race that 5 of there men could take on 100s of my own but thanks to sins I kinda see the point in fast colonistation. (I know there is more depth in gciv owing to it being sp only though and its taxes and things I need to get better with and what I build on my colonies)

Is it possible for me to make my own campaign? You know just basic like script a race to say , do job x and Y for me or something like this?

I will have a look through this forum and maybe Im being unrealistic but I feel ready to read some guides and actually sit and learn this game thoroughly.

Thanks for all the feedback, mucb appreciated :))
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have all 3 and would say this: it is night and day.

Dark Avatar made GC2 much better imho and ToA simply adds wonderful new dimensions - especially with the tech trees for each race (heaven)

Get it. And, trust me, this is objective - I would have no problem telling you if it was simply more eye-candy or had flaws etc. This is one of the best expansions I have bought.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There are bugs, some minor, some serious (The Thalan missing a crucial starbase tech bug for one thing). However, it still has a "one more turn" feel, whether or not I am winning or losing.

The game is more difficult--I've had to dial back my difficulty after an initial early win. The Terrans have walked all over me twice, as the Arceans and the Thalans.

My newest game--I'm playing the Terrans. Let's see if I do better.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ok what the hell lol getting as we speak , hopefully and from what Ive read I should have know problem installing the latest expansion on top of gciv 2 gold

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lol still have not done it, can I ask do any of you play the game universe at war? Aside from the campaign it sounds like it has alot of milage in MP , I just dunno what to do lol, does anyone here have this game?