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Galactic Civilizations II: Beta 1 Notes

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Galactic Civilizations II: Beta 1 Notes

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Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

Beta 1 Notes.

Introduction
The goal for this first beta is largely compatibility.  Galactic Civilizations II has a very new 3D engine that takes advantage of the latest features in 3D hardware. While we have attempted to test it on a wide range of video hardware, there will be video cards that it won't work on.

In addition, we are looking for general performance feedback. For most people, Galactic Civilizations II should play vastly faster than Galactic Civilizatiosn I did on the same hardware.  Our base test machine here is a Pentium II 600Mhz machine with a Geforce 2 MX card. And on that machine it was much faster than first game was.

We are also testing the content delivery system -- TotalGaming.net via the Stardock Central app.  THis beta will allow us to see how well the updated system works and force us to clean up what files we include (though there will probably be a lot of GalCiv 1 junk in there).

We will also be looking to see if beta testers will be able to successfully change the screens on their own.  In the GalCiv2\Screens directory there is this:

And in there are a bunch of .dxpacks.  These are read in by DesktopX which you can download at www.desktopx.net.   Next month we will be building up the Downloads are so that you guys can upload your own takes on various screens.

Special Screen Feedback
There are a few screens we do want to get some feedback on:

  • The Ship Design screen. We have struggled on this screen because we want it to be powerful but we don't want it to be hard to use.
  • The new technology screen. Same sort of thing.
  • The new colony screen.

 

Notes for Galactic Civilizations I players:
Currently we require planets to build a star-port in order to build ships.  We haven't decided whether we're going to keep this mechanic or not.

But it does have the effect that building ships is no longer an intregal part of the planet screen. Instead, ship building is its own screen. 

We will be working on finding ways to improve usability.  We don't want people to have to click too much on things so we will try to find ways of being able to quickly build things without having to click on various screens.

 

What Beta 1 is not about
This beta shouldn't be used to judge the "fun" ness of the game.  Or even the graphics of it.  For instance, we intentionally took out the textures on ships. 

Game balance isn't in there and there are lots of features not in.  Examples:

  •  The AI doesn't really function yet.
  • There's no star bases.
  • The technology tree is only at the very start
  • There's hardly any planetary improvements
  • There's no diplomacy or trade
  • The setup screens are not really hooked up yet or fully designed yet.

In short, the beta isn't really playable as a game yet. It's purely to see how we're doing in terms of compatibility, performance, and some of the UI concepts we're working with.

This game state is basically where we were 6 months before we shipped Galactic Civilizations I. Except this time we have 10 months to polish.  So those of you who were in the Galactic Civilizations I beta will hopefully be pleased with how far along things are given how much time is left.  Those of you who haven't been in one of our betas yet will likely be horrified at how much is left to do and that this would even be called a "beta" instead of an "alpha". ;)

We're very excited to hear what you guys think about it. We hope you like the direction we're going.

33,706 views 40 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No, Lucky Jack, I haven't really played GC1. I've played the demo version a long time ago, but I recall little (other than the demo was too short to get a good sense of funness).

If "planet management" == "colony screen", the screen looks fine as an information display (information about pop growth might be helpful, although it's unclear how population helps at this point), but I wanted to make certain they knew the screen as an interface currently, um, sucks to make sure it's on the plate to make better.

A good goveror system would, of course, make it better. It's another possibility I had not considered, partially b/c of dealing with stupid governors in too many games (No, gov, please do not start by building a infantry (80 turns)). It sounds like GC1 actually had reasonable governors.
Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No problem playing the game. No CTD's so far.
I have an AMD 64 2800 with a gig of RAMs running around and an ATI 9250 with 128mb memory (I think).
I also found the tech screen confusing.
It would be nice to see the ships that have been built at a planet show up as some sort of icon. Also, the drones don't appear as more than an itty bitty dot on the screen. They get lost very easily.
One problem in creating ships. It is damn near impossible to remove an item from a ship that you are creating. I have had to clear and restart on numerous occassions. I like the idea that two people could build the same ship and they would look alike. Maybe there can be a ship design contest in the distant future?
All in all, real nice. I look forward to seeing what enhancements the buttons that don't work right now bring.
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It sounds like GC1 actually had reasonable governors.

Well, GC I governors aren't intelligent: you give a list of improvements to build, and they stick to the order defined
Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That should be would NOT look alike up above. For some reason I can't edit my post.
Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
* Ive ran into a problem loading any of my games that i have saved.. when i try to load the game closes and it kicks me back to my desktop..

* Also when i take over a Alien planet the game will then freeze up on me ....after taking a alien planet it locks up soon as the screen goes back to the map....

i seen were ya all had a problem saving but how about taking over other planets with a transport ??? let me know

those are the big problems i have had .. tons of little stuff to but nothing that locks up the game

now far as things i like .... the creating of your own ships .. the new map look .. but all in all i really like the direction the creators are going !!! good job and plzz keep up the hard work !!!!..................................................................................thanks....Cove512
Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I tried switching to full-screen mode to get rid of the turn missing problem (did not work). However, I noticed some weird things with graphics while crying over the lost game. I can't figure out if this falls into the "too early" camp or not, but too early seems better than too late.

Firstly, the boundary can look odd close-up:

Note how curves in the boundary cause un-even fill (appears to only be an issue on convex curves). This can look pretty bad on sharp curves.

The more odd behavior (and probably easier to fix) is that moons are clipped based on the planet. Thus:

The moon has not revolved out of the image. I have simply moved right and the moon disappeared. I suspect that the cause is that the center of the planet has gone out of the picture. This was quite a shock the first time I saw it and should probably be fixed.

Of course, I usually stick in "tactical" mode, since the view is small otherwise. I only noticed this because I was playing, hoping the turn button would return.

(as a side note, I get "There was an error with your request. Please try again." every time I try to create a post)
Reply #32 from Stardock Forums Top
I am not having much luck at all so far. Playing the .12b beta on a system comprising Abit NF7-s V.2.0 mobo, Barton XP chip in the vicinity of 2 Ghz, 1 Gb Crucial Ram, Radeon 9600 XT video card.
Basically, the game crashes to desktop every time I try to found another colony immediately after I hit the return key on the 'naming planet' requester. I think this did not happen once out of about 7 or 8 tries so far.
I once had the 'turn' button disappear and I once had a crash to desktop when I tried to toggle NumLock. ( I was experimenting to see if the map would scroll with cursor or num-pad keys).

Being able to run at 1280x1024 would be nice, since it's the native resolution of 17" and 19" tft monitors. Anything less is not going to look optimal on those

-Peter
Reply #33 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Peter, GC2 already runs at multiple resolutons, we just don't have a widget yet for setting the resolution in game. Edit the prefs file and you'll see the resolution settings.
Reply #34 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I just got the release from last night 12[b].002 and 0.12.006 media pack and none of the button text is viewable. This is an an AMD 3200 Barton core running a fully updated Windows XP box newest drivers. Asus motherboard, 5600 Nvidia graphix card all drivers are current first thing I checked. so anyone help me out here? and everything was working fine before stardock upgraded it.

Edit
Damn it the image is way to big, just none of the buttons have any text

Also I uninstalled and reinstalled, tried opening without the extra content same problem.

Reinstalled extra content same problem.

So I am a wee bit stumped at this point.

Luke
Reply #35 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Lorent

A few people have reporteed this and in almost all cases a reboot fixed the problem
Reply #36 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
(Apologies for not having gotten reports back: have been uberbusy planning a conference: I'm one of the schmoes on a lower-end machine with graphics on the motherboard, so I suspect I'll have a number of interesting things to send, to help see whether a graphics upgrade will turn out to be truly mandatory.)
Reply #37 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I am so looking forward to a more playable demo...and mostly the finished game...

But...

Playing the lastest update, I found after about 40 rounds, I could no longer control any ships, old or newly made. The game came back and said that it was out of range and would be auto-piloted back, putting the crew in stasis. This occured even with a newly made and launched ship sitting right beside the planet.

Now...could somebody tell me where to find the error file? So that next time I can send it in with a bug.

Return Beta Tester

Chris
Reply #38 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Suggestion:

I like the idea of having specific spaces on the planent for placing buildings and such (reminicent of Outpost).

Remembering how many buildings (~35, not including 1/race or 1/game type buildings) there are in the game,

What about making some building upgradable...specifically research, defense and entertainment buildings since there are multiples of each.

For instance, when the second research building is available, the cost remains the same, but its cost and rewards are added to the current research lab.

The only exception I would see for this idea would be the 1/race or 1/game type buildings...they will still need an empty plot of their own.

One of the reasons I make this suggestion is looking at the possible number of plots per planet...to get even close to some of the population levels from GalCiv I (which determines defense, economics, research, and manufaturing levels) you will have to fill all the plots with farms that only feed 2 million people.

Return Beta tester

Chris (Vanyel)
Reply #39 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Future techs will make upgrades available. In the current Beta 1 build, only star ports are upgradable. Star Port to Enhanced Star Port. The Enhanced Star Port replaces the normal Star Port in your build queue once you have it, and you can select your already built Star Ports and "Upgrade" them, once you have Enhanced Star Port.

Star Dock has told us that in a future version of the beta GC2, we will be able to have the AI (our Governors) auto-upgrade our existing facilities when new upgrades come along.
Reply #40 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Vanyel, on the range thing: had you reloaded a saved game? Influence determines range, and since influence is not yet saved, all your ships will tell you they need to go in to stasis.

I'm afraid games must still be either played through to conclusion or abandoned when it's time to quit.