Why is usable tile placement...so stupid?

Ah, the visuals behind the tiles are just a background.
Adding some algorithm linking usable tiles to the randomized background would again use some additional resources (RAM, CPU) and all those bells and whistles would in the end bog down the game. There are some more instances where it was decided to keep the design more simple, allowing to reserve most of the resources for the AI and its strategy.

Ah but what you don't know is that those water tiles happen to either be these small groups of islands which are abundant in natural resources, or special underwater complexes built by some unknown civilization that since abandoned them. Meanwhile that entire continent looks fine from afar, but when you get close you find the land is swarming with carnivorous giant ants which makes it unsuitable for situating any buildings on.

So were stuck with this absurd placement? With there only being so many maps, can't they assign each one specific areas that will be usable? I hardly believe this would be a drag on many computers, but if so, can we have a choice to enable a more process using placement? (Like the advanced AI. It can be a drag on comps, but we still have the choice to use it.) If thats too much to ask for, can you ATLEAST fix the homeworlds? Oh, and I don't think the planet quality bonus is working.. besides that random piece of Antarctic real estate, I haven't noticed bonuses anywhere, or when colonizing planets. (Like how with the bonus, if you colonize a 7, you should get a 9. But I don't even go up a tile.) Unless this was severly nerfed, and if thats the case, they should REALLY lower the cost of that bonus, cause it's not worth whats asked for anymore.

Maudlin, do we not have Space RAID?

I think this is pretty low on the priority scale for "things to tidy up on" in this game. If "realism" is an issue for someone, Maudlin's exercise above works just fine.

it's a minor inconvenience that could be easily fixed

Oh? If it's that easy to program, why don't YOU do it?

It's more than "minor", imo. They shouldn't have boasted "The new planet surfaces are vastly improved", if all they did was draw some new maps, and let the computer place tiles stupidly. Any modder with time and skill can make new ones, so I hardly see any improvement, if it's still randomized. I don't mean to complain..but considering what they can do, I don't see why this isn't "vastly improved", like they claimed it to be. :/

I noticed the random tile placement too, but I got over it by just thinking of them as slots to fill rather than a literal representation of the location of individual buildings.

I was going to say that. Think about Earth and its 6 billion citizens, now put 2 to 7 extra billion in there; theres no where in our planet filled entirely with one kind of "industry"; theres farmlands on all continents, factories everywhere, cities all over, etc... In my mind, useable tiles show only the economical potential of one planet. A planet sized 10 has much more minerals and a nicer weather compared to a size 6 planet, thats why theres extra 'slots' for factories and marketplaces. The world map is just nice to look at. You can even add extra maps for more variety. I think its a 512x256 picture.

Another possible justification: the tiles listed are areas where the GOVERNMENT is allowed to place their mammoth industrial complexes and research cities. The rest of it is being used by private landowners, cities, or any other number of justifications... the only thing the government cares about is which areas are practical to put their shipyards, top secret research labs, etc. Furthermore, you could just regard the whole "tiles" thing as an abstraction... the actual buildings aren't built on only one spot in the world. That factory is actually representing industrial bases all over the planet, and that economic building represents a whole slew of bureaucratic and economic institutions. And that death furnace represents a slave incinerator in every home!

See, it makes sense with a bit of imagination!

Yeah, but building a xeno farm underwater still doesnt make sense
Unless your peeps are aquatic, but then it doesnt make sense that their capital is on land

Whatever. Its just a minor thing Doesnt bother me.

Do not do this. I HATE this argument. No, he does not have to progrm the answer himself in order to have an idea for improving something. There are people who are paid to do this. This is this person giving them a suggestion or request. You can have a political idea without writing legislation yourself. This forum is largely for suggestions and discusiion for and of the game.

If someone's biggest complaint is the tile placement on the planets then I think the game would be about perfect . Unfortunately there are some actual bugs to be worked on that make minor graphical inaccuracies seem frivolous by comparison.

Amen to that & back to TA

No, no... read, my friend. I object to his 'easily fixed' statement, not the suggesting of the idea. I would love if it were fixed... but... easily fixed?

I will talk to boogiebac about getting this fixed, i know what the problem is already. I'll see if we can work it into the next update.

And for the record, the solution is simple, it's just a matter of people having the time to do it. I have the time, so i will try to get them done and see if boogie can get them in the next update as i said. No promises though.

Sweet! This is great news.

I always think of the 'improvements' as massive arcologies, hence why you can only have one factory on an entire continent. The resources it takes to build even a corvette-sized ship in a few weeks requires a massive industry infrastructure, hence enormous building dedicated to it.

For reference - it takes eight months to build an F-15.

I do not see any good reason, why the placement in Arctic area is wrong. There are a lot of penguins to eat! And now seriously: People live there even now. With more enhanced technologies it will be much easier. It is the same as underwater. You may find minerals there, you can find food there too.

It may be easy to fix the placement of the square (I did not see the source code, so I can not tell, if it is really true), but is it really needed? If the game says the people live in the ocean, I say: "Good! They have some good reason to live there."

Well by 2223 Antartica will be mostly green fields accordng to Gore. A perfect place to put your farm.

As for Australia, well, i just can't bring myself to tell you what happens to it by 2223....

If the bonus you took was for say 10%, a PQ7 may not go up. To get from a 7 to a 9 the bonus would have to be like 30%. I don't know if that bonus rounds up or not. You are right though, the bonus is not really worth the points it costs.

I always think of the 'improvements' as massive arcologies, hence why you can only have one factory on an entire continent. The resources it takes to build even a corvette-sized ship in a few weeks requires a massive industry infrastructure, hence enormous building dedicated to it.

For reference - it takes eight months to build an F-15.

I think the whole time scale of this game is rediculous. Why have each turn represent only one week? In my current game I've gone from my starting 8 billion person empire to an Empire of 1.5 TRILLION people in a matter of 5 or six years. And like you said a starship can't be built in a metter of 3 or 4 weeks. Yet this is hard coded into the game....you can't even switch it to simple turn numbers or alter the time between turns in any way shape or form. I think it ruins some of the epic feel of the game and it was a strange decision to hard code it so it is one of the few things you cannot mod. Do what you want with the game, but darnit you will build a vast galactic empire from nothing in ten years max. lol

You guys take things quite literally. What did you do back before games looked pretty? I used my imagination...

That's a good idea, using the imagination....which is why generic turn numbers would be nice. They can stand for whatever you want them to. Imagination is good for filling in gaps or missing details(some games get worse when the graphics get better and when they get more in depth) but if you're going to use it to pretend game features that are there aren't there, or pretend the screen isn't showing what it is showing, you might as well just play solitaire and pretend you're playing GalCiv3. Save yourself some money!