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BETA 5: Notes and Bugs

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BETA 5: Notes and Bugs

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from GalCiv2 Forums

Beta 5 is the last major public beta of Galactic Civilizations II.  We will have a minor update on Monday to fix a problem discovered with nVidia cards (crashes on start for them).

Some of the highlights of the new version include:

+ You can set the resoluton from within the game (which is what we think causes the problem on nVidia cards).

+ The Miles Sound System is now in replacing our own home made sound system.  However: If you had a previous version installed, your sound and such will not be set right, you'll need to go to options and turn up the sound since it uses a totally different volume control system.

+ It's been optimized for performance. So it should be faster than previous versions.

+ It should use less memory.

+ The human colony ship has a high-resolution texture. We want to see how this performs for people as it's 8 times larger than the typical "high res" texture you have in other games.

+ The planet screen has been re-designed. We don't have all the icons and graphics in yet but the basic layout is there.

+ The Invasion screen is much closer to completion now.

+ Lots of gameplay tweaks. 

+ ALL your settings are now kept in \my documents\my games\galciv2

+ There is a lot more "jewelry" in the game for customizing ships including the ability to rotate the stuff.

+ A lot of stuff was done with custom races to make it more seamless.

+ Computer AI is smarter about ship design and what ships it builds.

+ Ethical Alignment choice bonuses are now working.

+ Tons of bug fixes.

Also, this beta marks the end to new beta testers being able to join.  Users who pre-order (regardless from where) will get the Collector's Edition version of the game which has additional content.

 

102,952 views 188 replies
Reply #101 from Stardock Forums Top
Cannot submit games to Metaverse.
Reply #102 from Stardock Forums Top
Ditto mayito.

There are 2 SB modules named Mining Barracks. One gives +2%. The other gives +3%.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #103 from Stardock Forums Top
Also two SB modules named "Battle Stations MK III"

Long life support ranges are very quirky, I had one case where the limit was a straight line and in the same place for both a ship with 2.5 range and one with a 3.5(?) range (build specifically to get to the resource just over the line).

Oh, and have I got a saved game for you. I keep getting messages that if such and such fleet attack planet Bevona V, the Dralth will declare war on the Iconians. Well, I'm not either of these races, and I'm nowhere near that planet. However, the one time I clicked O.K. on that (to see if I could make it go away), I found myself asking the senate to vote in favor of declaring war on the Dralth. Next thing you know, due to interconnected Alliances, I'm at war with every major race except the Yor. And I'm still getting that popup several times at once every handful of turns. Thinking of taking the planet just to get rid of the popups.

I don't mind being at war with everyone, my standard defensive starships have 50 points of gun and 42 points of shield, and are gradually being replaced with my new ones that have over 150 points of missile attack and a total of 197 defense, split fairly evenly between all three types of defense. My raider ships are a little weaker defensively (156 total) but with a speed of 24 and a range of 3.5.
Reply #104 from Stardock Forums Top
Something that has happened to me 4 times, and I have to restart my computer each time it happens, is the mouse cursor will freeze. The game will still run but the mouse is unusable. Even if I manage to exit the game the mouse will still not move on my desktop. This is very annoying.

I have Win XP Media Center 2005
Intel Pentium D 3.0 Ghz
1 Gig RAM
PCI-Express X 16 Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT 128 MB Graphics Card
Reply #105 from Stardock Forums Top
I have found the following in the tech tree:
Expert miniaturization -> new improvement : hyperion shrinker
Supreme miniaturization -> new improvement : hyperion shrinker
Reply #106 from Stardock Forums Top
Unable to submit to Meta again. To second what Popup said about ranges. In the last two games I have played the ranges of individual ships do not fan out on an even keel from Star Bases. I have not noticed this problem before but I had not built alot of SBs either. The ranges appear fine from planets I own or have acquired.

I have seen a lot of talk about the Alliances... Seems much harder to get them in GC II vs GC I. Not that thats a bad thing.
Reply #107 from Stardock Forums Top
Speaking of ranges, when I researched Advanced Life Support last night I didn't get the +10 to range that the tech tree said I would.
Reply #108 from Stardock Forums Top
I found out that if you log in first in the Metaverse before you start a game, you can submit the game, but I am getting an error 7 and it is not letting me submit the game, any ideas what is "error 7"?
Reply #109 from Stardock Forums Top
Just playing a game of regular GC to compare and realized how nice it is to see the Planet List (which shows the ship in production and its build time) at the same time as I am changing my Domestic Policy (tax rate, etc). This way, you can immediately see the impact on military and social projects...

I really miss that in GCII !
Reply #110 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What the freak? I am attacked on a planet where I have around 2000 for troop strength and a 74000 tech rating. The Dominion of Korax attacks with 500 troop stregnth and a tech rating of around 31000. And they kick my ace! Am I missing something. Is this a bug. Because this sure looks like a bug to me. Shouldn't the technologically superior race win. It always gives the dominion a 20 vs. 2 advantage against me before the battle begins.

Win XP Media Center 2005
Intel Pentium D 3.0 Ghz
1 Gig RAM
nVidia 6600 GT 128 MB PCI-Express X 16
Reply #111 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm occasionally getting popups about my ships being out of range and needing to autopilot back, or about how they can't travel that far, when they are clearly within range and, in fact, proceed to move where I ordered them to just before the popup. I don't know what more I can do to help debug this problem though, since when I try to recreate it it doesn't happen.
Reply #112 from Stardock Forums Top
We still have the problem where a planet culture flip doesn't stop invasion fleets. The Arceans were at war with the Drath, and one of the Drath worlds culture flipped to me. The next turn my new planet was invaded by the Arceans (I was able to fight them off ). Before the invasion, and even after the invasion, the Arceans are "Close" to me. So I expect that the transport was set on autopilot to invade, and the culture flip didn't stop it. Need to add a last minute check to the AI to make sure the planet you're invading still belongs to the race you intended to invade.
Reply #113 from Stardock Forums Top
I still get ships I have created in a previous game under a different empire showing up in the ship building screen. When I try to delete them I am told I can not delete the core ship designs.
Reply #114 from Stardock Forums Top
GalCiv2 Crashes when Restoring a Game

While playing the game over the span of hours I noticed that saving the game took very long. The memory utilization had grown to 600MB, likely do to memory leakes. When I try restoring the last auto save, after several minutes a dialog box appears with title, "Fatal Error" and message "Invalid call".

GalCiv2 0.80a[b].002
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
System Model: Dimension 4600i
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A08
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Physical Memory: 512MB RAM
Page File: 186MB used, 805MB available


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce FX 5200
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0322&SUBSYS_01B910DE&REV_A1
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.8195
Driver Date: 11/11/2005 13:47:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes

Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: SoundMAX Digital Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24D5&SUBSYS_01741028&REV_02
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: smwdm.sys
Provider: Analog Devices
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.3600
Driver Date: 5/6/2003 10:14:34
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0

I emailed the above message along with the debug.err file to [email protected] and [email protected].
Reply #115 from Stardock Forums Top
I just sent a screen shot to gc2bugs where two different fleets in the field of view appear to be selected (the dashed blue circle around them). This bug probably accounts for the problem I've had recently where I try to build a starbase with what I think is the currently selected constructor only to find the starbase built somewhere else.
Reply #116 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm occasionally getting popups about my ships being out of range and needing to autopilot back, or about how they can't travel that far


I saw this in my last game as well.

What the freak? I am attacked on a planet where I have around 2000 for troop strength and a 74000 tech rating. The Dominion of Korax attacks with 500 troop stregnth and a tech rating of around 31000.


Ditto. Every thing looks fine we the player attacks the AI. It is when the AI attacks the player that there is a serious issue.
Reply #117 from Stardock Forums Top
sometimes when you click on the blue new ship icon, go to the planet screen, launch the ship, and click the done button, when you exit the planet screen the newly launched ship will not be selected.
Reply #118 from Stardock Forums Top
I had a planet create 2 constructors at one time. Happened repeatedly. Have not been able to recreate. Yet.
Reply #119 from Stardock Forums Top
I had a planet create 2 constructors at one time.


I frequently see 2 ships completed a few turns after loading a saved game. I'm not sure whether the saved game load causes a ship completion notice to be missed, or whether they are actually being completed on the same turn.
Reply #120 from Stardock Forums Top
I was playing a custom race based on Thalan (I have changed only the color of the ship). I have contacted the Altarian that were at war with the Terran alliance. I have asked them to attack, without giving anything, the Terran alliance, which is itself very strange since they were already at war with them. And the Altarian told me: "My apologies, but we are unable to give you those item at the moment. Perhaps some other time".
Reply #121 from Stardock Forums Top
When rightclicking on a tech in the diplomacy screen for "medium scale building", I get the indication of no future tech. But the research screen says otherwise: "superior hulls" is the following tech.
Reply #122 from Stardock Forums Top
Nothing major, but the buttons on the Main Menu take a while to fully appear. Probably my system.

Dell Latitude D800
Pentium M 1.4 MHz
512 MB RAM
GeForce4 Mobile 64 MB video
Reply #123 from Stardock Forums Top
When I open the foreign advisor screen after loadin a game, the drengin is displayed. The annoying thing is that they have surrended many turns ago to the altarians.
Reply #124 from Stardock Forums Top
I got a nice UP event: a previously hostile planet is now open for colonization. I won the vote and got the planet. But there are strange things:
- the planet was new Iconia V and was already colonized by the Iconian empire
- no colony building, but the planet is still producing something, and I am able to build things normally
Reply #125 from Stardock Forums Top
When a planet has completed a ship and you go to it from the GNN report, the screen for choosing rally point is set behind. This means that it won't appear if you click on the rally point button. But you will see it after closing the starport screen and the GNN report.