RPG element

nice idea

Having a Heroes system like in the Star Chamber game would've been great.To late at this stage in design i think.

expansion pack could ahve it

I was explaining this game to a friend of mine..trying to get him interested in it.. and that was his main complaint.

He likes strategy games that makes him "connect" to his units. I was telling me stories about a game he used to play called "Fantasy General" where a unit gains experience.. and eventually he would have a handful of units that had been with him from the beggining.. they were "lower tier" units but their experience made them stronger than his higher tier units.. and so he felt a connection to them, and was even able to name them.

The system you are talking about would go a long way towards building a connection between the player and his units. If each ship had a captain.. and as a ship gains a level, you were able to choose a new "special ability" for your Captain.. that would be awesome.

I could see special abilities like:

"Good Instincts" - increases sensor range

"Lucky" - increases chance of rolling high numbers by making it impossible to roll the lowest number available. (so a normal range of 2-8 would be a range of 3-8 or 4-8 under this captain)

"Runs a tight ship" - increases range that the ship can travel by 1


things of that nature. I think this would be a great addition to the game in an expansion.

CorbieKitaal, GC2 has all of that already:

1) ships can be renamed, so you can give them names that you can connect with.
2) ships earn experience which improves their stats
3) ships can be upgraded to remain current, so you could have a ship that started early that's still highly effective at the end game.

My only real issue with the idea of legendary captains/crews is that GC isn't just a combat simulator, and having them as just captains/crew focuses the attention there. We could do something like MoO2 had, where you had social leaders as well, though I don't know if Stardock would be interested in doing that. I think it might be adding a lot of complexity to the game a little too late for that kind of change.

well from what ive read.. gaining experience only increases ship HP... that was according to the posted manual anyway.

And im aware that you can upgrade the ships.. but I think my friend was looking for something more along the line of "unique bonuses" for your best (or surviving) units.

I dunno.. im not playing the game so I cant really comment on what would be nice to have in the game or not.. so dont mind me .. ill leave the brainstorming to the guys playing beta.

it would be nice if a ships commander gave speciall attrributes and could be transfered from one ship to another. Simply upgrading a Frigate isnt the same as moving Cap'n Blood from your first defender and keeping him alive (and developing) till he ilots yur first star destroyer

No biggie I supose but I personally think it would be cool.

One complain I've had since GalCiv 1 is the way your ships are auto maticly Numbered. I always thought that if I was building war ships, I would number them sequentially, not randomly. and with letters. So instead of the first ship being "Defender 312" it would "Defender A-00" And a similar System for starbases, but numbered galacticly, so if you were the 3rd civ to make a starbase, it would be named "Starbase 3"

Kinda interesting idea, but I go play NWN if there is role playing and character stuff to be had. This is a hunking big chuck of heavy metal empire simulator here... RWAR! I'm not sure there is a place for individual ship personalities. Other space games try to blend the two - but from what I've picked up this wont be one of them.

I agree with rogerano here, at least in part. As I think, being the big galactic overlord that I am, I really don't care all that much about the individual ships, however I do care about the Admirals (fleet commanders), same as on planets I would care about the governors, also if I wasn't the one doing the negotiating with other species I'd care about who ever that was. Basically it comes down to the chain of command, I'm the one at the top, I give orders to the next lot down (those are the ones that matter to me, as I need them to be good at their jobs), they then give orders to those below them and so forth)...

As to the numbering, it was a bit annoying to have random generated ones, as unless I name all my ships I never know which one I might be giving away if I decide to trade/help some one, more often than not its one of the ones on the opposite side of the map to where I thought it was. Sequential numbering would probably help that side of things, although it might be better if they had a prefix for species (which could then change on transfer..), i.e. Yor Defender 1(A) or Yor Starbase 1(A), etc.. the (?) would stand for the upgrade.

I always thought that if I was building war ships, I would number them sequentially, not randomly

I think they are numbered sequentially, but you won't see it that way because the sequence numbers are for all ships, yours and your opponents. So if you have ships 520 and 528, opponents will have ships 521, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526, and 527.

It was that way on GC1, and it looks like GC2 is doing the same thing.

Fleets should have an Admiral, with statistics and all, this is a compromise.
(Myself would love all ships personally named and have unique captains, but i understand that on this BIG scale they would not be oversee-able)

Has anyone played rome total war where you assign a family member to an army and he has his own stats, advantages and disadvantages. Implementing this but using officers and assigning them as the leader of a fleet. This would give your units more personality and a greater sense of loss when destroyed

Of course
But even in MOO2 you could have captains for ships with stats, and that game is a LOT older than Rome:TW

Well, C&C Tiberian Sun did a great job in this department. Each unit, down to the single infantry, would move up in rank according to how many kills they had. With each rank increase, more attack points and hit points were attained. I know that technically you can research upgrades and come across anomalities and whatnot in GalCiv, but it would be neat to have names already assigned to ships; naming them yourself is not the same. Especially because you won't feel like naming all your ships when you get into huge wars. And it would also be neat to have the rank system implemented.

Kane Rulez!!!

I must comment and also say that this is ides is, personally, great.

I'll try to detail how the idea I read here went throught my head:

"...ooh. Cool. Banana. Hmmm. Hungry. Donut. Ohh. Commaders in GalCiv 2. Cool. Banana. Hmm..."

And now for being serious.

I think that every ship you'll build will be assigned a commander automatically, without you inteferring in the process. The commander will be given a name, planet-origin, a random picture, and that's it. If he'll survive long enough and succeed a couple of battles, he'll go up an experience-rank, which will give him a bonus of some sort, like the bonuses that were mentioned earlier in this thread. Maybe even a battle resume could be added to each commander - showing that he participated in the "War of the Eastern Galactic River" and such. And another insignia would be added to his military outfit in his picture.

Eventually, I think that each civilization will have one, two or three respectible commanders which succeeded a lot of battles. When this top-notch general will advance towards a battle, the AI will think twice if they can battle him with success. So, I think it'll add to the element of fun to try to kill your rival civilization's top commanders, and they'll try to kill, or overcome, yours. Huge battles with the best commanders your civlization has to offer wil join together to battle a rival civilization, which will also gather up her best commanders. This could result in a real epic battle, where many great men will fall, but the commanders which will survive will be considered heroes that have outwitted their opponents.

Perhaps if a commander get promoted enough, and by enough I mean A LOT, the civilization he belongs too will recieve some kind of bonus. Like a small moral boost due to pride that 'this great man is one of us'. Having the most fearful, experienced and cunning General could help your civ. However, only the civ with the most experienced commander will have that bonus, so unlike a galactic wonder, this 'title' could change from civ to civ throughout the game timeline.

"War of the Eastern Galactic River"

There aren't rivers in space, dude.

you learn something new every day

sometimes i think each one of us is the worst AI ever written.

Sometimes a rpg element can be a bad thing. In fire emblem, im constantly worrying about equaling out my units experience. (if one is super powerful and the rest are weenies its bad) I dont want another game like that.
Besides, isn't the ship design and naming enough?

Brad has talked about adding Heroes into a future Galciv before.Sounds like a great expansion pack idea.Fleet Heroes and terror stars would get my cash without a second thought.

I hear ya Ashbery. Just the Terror Star alone would get my cash into Brad's pocket quicker than you can say antidisestablishmentarianism, but Fleet Heroes too? Damn.. that sounds cool. Though, I do wonder how it would work...

any one know?

I hear ya Ashbury.

I really believe commanders are important to a story. Even on a galactic scale like this. Because what's talked about most often, in historical studies of past wars. The generals, who directed the campaigns. Sure now were also finally starting to get more deep stories from the trooper in the trenches perspective.

By the same token, the Patton's, and Rommels, and Jackson and Grant.. and Takeda Shingen vs Oda Nobunaga, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, and so on and so forth.

Generals (Leaders) get folks so much more involved and caring.

I don't think they fit in there. I want to manage my huge empire, not babysit Admirals (or, even worse, individual crew members). I don't want to fly around with a couple of "heroes" while the rest of my fleets are cannon fodder. Makes strategic deployment nearly impossible (like in HoMM, a few heroes running around chasing the opponents heroes)