Lord Reliant

Thanks, Kyro. If either of them have a free moment, a Journal update would be cool.

This has been one heck of a vacation. I assume Gal Civ patches are still being worked on, right?

The link posted just returns back to this post. Looks like an typo. I went to Apolyton's site and found it: http://galciv2.net/4/254/439/ I'm not sure how old the review is, as it doesn't post a date.

Another voice in the mix: *Race customization enhanced (allow changing of logistics, tech, miniaturization, etc.) *Add additional map features (nebulae, space clouds, super novas, etc.) for more strategy *Decrease micromanagement, particularly for Constructors- make them work more like miners *Create an end-user map/scenario editor *Improve UI, as listed in this thread: https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=357&aid=143715 *Enforce infl

I'd like to also suggest the addition of nebulae that have different effects. Heck, maybe they could even be temporary additions (they exist for so many turns and then leave). There seem to be a lot of possibilities. Thinking back to Master of Orion 2, I believe they had a nebula that would slow down travel in that area. I could see implemented them to: *Slow down/speed up ships traveling through it (both military and trade) *Increase/decrease sensor range in there (I like this

I've found it strange/frustrating that the pre-made races have those built-in, non-modifiable bonuses whereas the Custom race does not. I would agree you can specialize quite a bit more which can be an advantage, but some of those hidden/unchangeable values on built-in races does seem odd. Why not bring that into the user level so you don't need to modify values with a text editor? Or is this a bug?

I have an XP 1900+ w/ 1 GB of RAM and an Asus GeForce 6600 card and it plays pretty well (although I haven't played as much with DA, so I'm not as sure). I've played on Gigantic a couple of times and it did slow down near the end, but it was still playable, and I had most graphic features still on. Kudos to Stardock on this.

What's the rationale behind this population limit? Food improvements were already reduced in power and entertainment tech has been increased in cost so I'd think those would be effective deterrents already. No other planet improvements see a reduction in effectiveness that I know of? For instance, I can build unlimited factories, labs, banks, etc. with no penalties.

Even if the module is supposed to be used to disassemble the current ship, I'd really like it if we could add more than one construction module per ship. As mentioned previously that would really reduce micro-management later and not penalize the colony building ships to produce 5 different ships with 1 module each over 5 separate turns versus building one ship with 5 constructor modules in a few turns. Right now you can add multiple colony modules and multiple troop transports. Why not multi

It seems like ATI cards are having slowdown problems with the new graphic enhancements, especially on older ones like 9800s.

From what I've seen/read I think it had to do with the graphic improvements, but some cards with low RAM and/or that are older have issues. Mostly ATI, but I could be wrong.

In other words, it's being anti-Social Looks like a cool game/idea. I believe some of Stardock's lower priced games include aspects they'd like to see in Society, but that's a huge undertaking and they're doing it the smart way- divide and conquer. I also believe the next version of Political Machine will be out this next year, just in time for the next presidential race. I'm sure that

I've also found if you're on an anomaly-rich map, build survey ships ASAP. I've even bought them outright as they'd typically find more than enough cash to justify their purchase, and several anomalies improve your economic bonus, so that helps. Toning down spending/versus savings sure helps. I try and keep my approval rating near 100% near the beginning of the game which makes population increase more quickly, so while I have a negative income to start with, I'll get a faster populat

I saw in the review: The new civs and the civ creation tool add a lot of replayability to the game. Picking your new race's abilities, weaknesses, government, overall aesthetic and so forth really lets you tailor the experience to your own tastes. Picking weaknesses? This is the first I heard of that. I went to look at Brad's Guided Tour of Dark Avatar and didn't see anything that mentioned how you could customize your race, o

This was the first time I'd seen the streamlined tech tree and I'm a big fan. Is there a slightly higher-res version that's a bit more clear? It's tough to read the names of some of that stuff. It seems like the AI vs. AI tests require quite a bit of analysis to see their effectiveness. It would be interesting to see a rating system (perhaps for players, too) similar to what you get at the very end of a game that might provide a better indicator for effectiveness (or the why portion

I bet the hard part comes in being able to track everything the AI has done over time. With even 4 AI players keeping everything they do over time straight would be very tough!

Thus prompting your next post I see. Sweet. Looks like the Drengin AI is pretty tough, despite mistakes.

And along those lines, could you do smoke testing? For instance, load up the same Universe with the same "human" player that is scripted and see how the AI reacts to it over time and based on various tweaks? You'd have to be careful since you don't want the AI to only be good at defeating players in one map and scenario, but it would show the level of randomness and luck for various outcomes and also show (over time) the effect of your AI modifications. Also, is is really fair to say

This is indeed very impressive and I like some of the added strategy, such as diplomatic discussions and the way things are handled on conquered civs. Are there any plans for a power-plant style for money generation (and not just population)? Having increased research and production is all well and good, but without cash to pay for it there's not as much value. Is the Epic Generator still in on this build? No word on its future?

Yeah. It sounded like that quite a while back. Will logging still be on, though? That'd be helpful to the community and not a complete loss. Thanks for the info. Good luck on polishing!

So, when do Stardock staff take time off? Geez! You guys are intense. It will be interesting to read more of your exploits these past few weeks. There have certainly been a lot good ideas floating around in the forums recently regarding DA.

Everyone must have had last week off. Not that I blame them since the week of Thanksgiving was very busy. I will be interested in hearing more about the EG since it's been a couple weeks and that was when a decision about its readiness would be made.

This must be the calm before the storm. Or something.

Any word on the future of the EG? This is a pretty hot topic with a variety of opinions on all sides of the fence and any update on this would be great.

I agree with what others said as well- not being able to speak to other civs often is fine as long as: 1. It's not always a fixed # of turns regardless of situation. Varying based on friendliness, major events, etc. is a great idea. What about displaying the time until you can speak again in number of turns/weeks (to save clicking)? I'd shade out their pictures if you don't do that already. 2. The computer is also held to the same restriction, both for other AI units and t