My first post here.
I have played tons of MOO2, starting when the game came out and after a several year break since December when I bought the game from GoG. It is a superb game, but even on Impossible it is honestly much too easy once you learn to use an overpowered custom production race. MOO2 being well over a decade old is also somewhat limited in scope and was getting repetitive to me since I knew clearly the best things to do early to survive and attack (make a few new colonies and build MIRV missile ships). When I play MOO2 now I usually play as uncreative which is lots harder since the AI selects your research items randomly so I cannot follow a cookbook path to extreme power.
So..a few day ago I DLed the GalCiv2 demo and after figuring out what was going on and some reading here, I was becoming quite impressed so I went over to Impulse and found Ultimate Edition for DL for 10 bucks !!
Well..what can I say? A great price and what you get to play is TOA, the final x-pac and after a couple years of patches and two x-pacs a very fine gaming company like Stardock has done things very well.
I am extremely impressed with this game and look forward to years of fun and skill and technique improvement.
This game isn't as total war oriented as MOO2, but believe me I play all these games to warmonger (including CiV) and conquest can be a very important winning path in GalCiv2. Like CiV there are other ways to win, but for me, I am conquering. However, it is fun to watch my influence steal an AI's asteroid mines and even a planet or two.
I play in the same style as MOO2, production oriented, but with some research planets. In MOO2 you can just build a couple financial buildings on most decent pop planets for extra income, but in GalCiv2 you'll want a couple financially oriented planets. Somewhat similar to MOO2 there are planets with some bonuses (but they are planet surface tiles you'll build on rather than the entire planet being ultra-rich or having artifacts etc). As in MOO2 I use missile ships until I can switch over to high level beam weapons (and by that time the AI's often have missile defences (although likely not good enuf).
Game by game I am working my way up the difficulty level tree and enjoying it immensely.
Seriously, I suggest to just DL UA for 10 bucks and enjoy.
My only concern is that you'll be so enthralled with TOA that you'll lose sleep and be calling into work sick and may lose your job.
GalCiv2 ROCKS .... neilkaz ...
