The Planet Invasion Combat Viewer

I wish (I doubt it) - that is supposed to be one of the "new features" in the "expansion". One of the "features" I'd rather have been without. Or hell at least give us a checkbox option to see one or the other... geez.

Yea, I agree! Makes the "Skip" button look really good...

I can't see any reason for switching to the new 'X's viewer either, unless it's to shut people up who want a MOO3 kind of planet invasion. Hopefully it forecasts some kind of improvement in planet invasions for GC 3.

I liked the old one better too. I know others have said it before, but it would be wonderful to be able to control a ground battle for the invasion. GC3 maybe?

Well, we can't even control the space battles, so... I don't see that happening.

But I know what you mean. I think many people will agree with me when I say that alot of people are just looking for an improved version of Master of Orion in Galciv.

As far as features, Galciv has barely delivered. Some improvements happened, but entire pieces of the puzzle were ignored (tactical combat, more specific diplomacy options, etc). An "okay" game called Imperium Galactica (sp) had some of this, but was poorly implemented compared to MOO so it didn't do so well. Not much else out there I can think of, so it's only lack of competition keeping Galciv around IMO.

If a competitor decides to bring back MOO and directly compete with Galciv, and the Galciv designers have the same "our way only, ignore the customer's wishes" attitude, a new Orion would probably blow this series out of...space.

I rather see ToA combined with Sins of a Solar Empire-type battles for GC3.

Well that would be a totally different game, isn't Sins full 3D like Homeworld? Full 3D battles in space are too difficult and confusing to deal with, it's not like Total War where you're 3D on a 2D surface. Humans don't think very well in 3D, especially when presented with 3D info on a 2D monitor, and also moving the camera around becomes an issue. Sins isn't turn based AFAIK either, bleh. That's effectively a totally different genre, and requires a very different set of developer skills.

The old Master of Orion tactical battles were the best ever, and even looked cool without being fancy fancy 3D.

Really Stardock, just make Galciv 3 a rip off of MOO II. Forget the idiots who complain it's a big rip off. Genuinely IMPROVE on the old version (NOT on just graphics) and listen to your customers for further improvements, simple as that. (Ok so not really..)

"Full 3D battles in space are too difficult and confusing to deal with" that must be why Sins is such a success?

Really, you should try it before you shoot it down.

Like I was saying, keep the strategic game the same, but make the BATTLES like SINS battles, with our custom ships doing th SINS-type fighting. Simple. Turn-based battles stink.

I only started playing GalCiv with ToA, had only seen screenshots of the old invasion screen, and heard people say how horrible the old graphics were.

Recently, I started up a game of DA and used a cheat code to go right into planetary invasions, just to see for myself.

Okay, so the little men aren't anything to write home about, graphics-wise, but WOW the old screen was more FUN. It was more immersive, and- did I mention- FUN!

I'm an old MOOII fan, like many others here, and I agree with everyone's sentiments when they say that we all wish GalCiv was nothing more than a MOOII remake, but it's not, and it's a darned good game all on its own.

I'll live with that.

But please don't go taking GalCiv as it was, move it further away from MOOII than it started, and call it an "improvement".

Please, please, please, as a new player I'm begging you, please bring back the old invasion screen, at least as an option!

And to everyone saying that the space battles should be just like realtime Sins battles, and the ground invasions should be just like a full-blown RTS... Stay on the bloody topic!

If there's one thing I hate it's perfectly reasonable, do-able requests getting buried under piles of outrageous, over-ambitious requests for a complete overhaul of every facet of the game.

Bring back the old screen!

meh, personally I'd like a mix of the two. Perhaps see your troops moving across the map and taking over the "flags". Although I do like the new screen to the old one. Both are just there to hold the skip button for me though. I have no need to watch the drawn out version of either battle.

Also new to Gal Civ2. Bought the Gold Edition on sale at CC and loved the old ground combat screen. Then with ToA was sorely disappointed to see the new screen. Would love to have the option of reverting back to the old screen. BTW, totally love Gal Civ2 and have now been addicted to it for the past month. It's made me finally uninstall the windows version of Moo2 (yes, I still played it once in a blue moon) from my laptop in lieu of Gal Civ2. But please bring back the old ground combat screen to ToA.

Agreed...the new screen doesn't look like a ground attack. It looks like you're watching a bunch of aliens commute during rush hour.

Well I never claimed Homeworld and Sins weren't successes. They're different--and for someone who likes clunky three dimensional interfaces with a ton of crap going on everywhere you look (speaking from Homeworld gameplay here), I'm sure they love that. Maybe Sins is different but whatever, who cares, it's all off topic.

The old invasion screens more fun? Yeah, that's one way to put it. It's definitely better than removing almost all animation and representation of military units, replacing it with stupid dumbass blinking flags and a barely changing movie animation, and then having the damn nerve to call that an ENHANCEMENT. I could have come up with something better than flashing flags working part time while in high school!

I feel like I was outright LIED to in the expansion's advertising. Stardock didn't take the game "from the 80's to the 90's" - they took it from the 80's to the 70's, with a friggin looping black and white slideshow to spice things up! Stupid.

Despite everyones crying and complaining about the invasion screen I don't think stardock has any plans to change it(although they probably will do something different for gal civ 3).I do agree it could have been alot better but I do think it is an improvement visually from the last one, I don't find exploding lunch boxes too fun to look at.Now I know something like this will bug some people more than others but I think the developers wanted to stear clear of overly long complex ground invasions so as not to make the game too complex long and convoluted.You also have to remember these guys probably don't have a huge buget on this game like EA or some of the other big game developers,so they have to come up with economic creative solutions to make this part of the game entertaining.That being said I don't think this screen makes this game any less fun to play this game and the two expansions added so many new and great features I'm willing to let this slide and I would like to know what other developer adds as much player content to their game?
To say stardock doesn't listen to their customers is rediculous, the fact is no game developer can add every thing that thousands of different people are asking for in one game.(and imho these guys came pretty close). Any ways I still haven't played any perfect games but I have played alot of fun ones and there are very few games as fun as this one imo.

Oh I can totally see why they didn't implement very complex ground invasion battles, that's not the issue. The issue is messing with something that worked fine, and not improving it, but making it worse. Without even giving people the option of retaining the old, even though it doesn't affect gameplay. Bleh.

The only game like this that I know of that implemented ground battles, (wait was it Imperium Galactica or Pax Imperia? whatever.. Imperium I think..) Ah let's just say they were a miserable failure and drudgery to play through.

Technically, both versions "work fine", in that they have a skip button to end the tedium as rapidly as possible. You weren't around to see it, but replacement of the previous invasion screen was very high on the list of user-requested changes for TA. That replacing the old with the new was the equivalent of replacing the rack with thumbscrews is irrelevant - people asked for change and they got it. After you've seen either one a few hundred times, you just tune it out anyway.

Dude, do you like anything at all with GalCiv? It really seems that GalCivII has failed for you in every area (atleast the ones I've seen you post in) MOO2 was awesome, but come on, we both know it was easy as hell and a huge reason was because of the tactical combat, the human (with half a brain) would obliterate bigger and better fleets by these means. And, MOO3 killed your favorite game-series, not GalCiv.

GalCiv is its own game and has some problems but nothing like MOO3.



Always with the comparisons to MOO2, so how good was diplomacy in MOO2?

What areas was MOO2 better than GC2? Besides the tactical combat which I grant you would be nice (okay,okay, UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLY nice) , but ONLY if the AI ban be made to do battle well tactically as well.



What? GC2 listens to its customers, but they can't please every customer, or specifically you. You want MOO2 combat, MOO2 Diplomacy, MOO2 invasion battles, but you must not like the MOO2 interface, economy, planet imrovements, AIs, customizable AIs, tech TREES, Editors, customizable races... otherwise you would be playing MOO2 instead of blasting GalCivII for not being MOO4.

Well, nuts. I had a carefully written post on this topic but it vanished so to nutshell it, GalCiv II has gameplay and support and moddability.

If you want the planetary invasion screen to change you're going to have to go to your creative space and come up with something that looks and fits better. Whether you simply want a round of Space Invaders to play in the bottom screen during your invasion, or something else, you're going to have to demonstrate that it's worth exploring alternatives. Otherwise the pew-pew original screen and the poing-poing expansion screen are the only contenders by virtue of already having appeared.

I actually like the new screen. I mean really, armies numbering in the billions getting in neat battle lines and charging at each other? The blinking flags may not be as visualy satidfying as (blocky) soldiers, but it make the battles seem bigger, I.E., going on alround the planet.

Okay I give up, I was just trolling you guys. lol

If I really thought MOO was THAT much better why would I be here? hehehe

Probably the only things MOO2 had over GC2 was tactical combat, and fewer bugs. And I kinda liked the ship design screens a little better in some ways, but the memory is fuzzy.

But I am genuinely pissed that the old invasion screens are gone, among other things. The expansions have been a huge disappointment IMO. I might even go back to the original, it's just a shame we can't pick and choose which expansion features to keep.

Isn't it interesting that no matter how hotly this topic is debated, or how strongly people feel about liking or disliking the new or the old screen, nobody has any objection to the OPTION of choosing either screen?

Change = Risky
OPTIONS = Good

I thought something was up, after reading all them posts on the front page  



agreed




true... true...

That's what I'm talking about. But someone claimed that a Stardock dev said something along the lines of (not the same wording) "If we add too many options soon we'll have a big list of options, instead of a game."

That's just silly. If too many options and player choices are bad, why the hell are so many of the wildly successful games with long lasting communities so extremely moddable? (i.e. players have many options) That's not a coincidence.

Moddability is good. Options are good. But the number of sliders for every option, from planet class/habitability to anomaly spawn rate to mega event frequency, would quickly get out of hand. Not to mention the people asking for the ability to selectively turn off individual classes of extreme planets, anomalies, mega events, ethical events, etc. The result would be a set up screen with literally hundreds of sliders, switches, and menus.

Bring it on!

Note: The sort of options you're talking about have nothing to do with the subject.