That's pretty good. I usually just use separate points and label them accordingly, as I don't like my troop transports making rendezvous near my fighting ships, and I don't have the constructors go anywhere near the other classes. Along those lines, I would suggest a rally point that could make pre-designed fleets, so that it only accepts particular ships based on filters, such as speed or weapons types.
The article bemoans the loss of creative spirit at the expense of mass marketing. Maybe my experience is limited, but you don't usually see "creative" and "mainstream production" in the same developer. It's in the best interest of the main stream to be as UN-creative as possible, as creativity leads to mistakes, which leads into losses. I would climb out onto a limb and suggest that a surplus of creativity is what has done in companies like Westwood, Epyx, and Cinemaware. I defin
You're not always going to get a totally satisfying beginning/middle/end game with such an open-ened game like GalCiv2 without using scripted plot triggers, like in the campaign. Still, I think the plot is best left alone. If the game isn't fun, there's nothing stopping me from trying another. I have had a series of somewhat unsatisfying endgames, so now I leave diplomatic victory on, and if I want a quick end, I just make alliances. I have also had some really incredible games with GalCiv2,
This is probably a useless question, but I've noticed in the pictures above that the UI retains some "shininess" to it. I'd really like to be done with that effect, especially on the minimap. Can that "shininess" be editted out? I would imagine so.
There's also a random event which can drastically boost the habitability of non-colonized planets, but you'll know that one when you see it.
Why does the top of the post say "Sometimes evil wins?" I'm not sure I get that. Also, up here in Canada, 50.5% does represent a democratically-based majority. If you recall, 50.5% of Quebecois voted not to separate from Canada on October 30, 1995. Based on that result, we retained our national unity. If we had held out for an "obvious majority", we'd all be eating Freedom Fries with our American cousins, singing the Star Spangled Banner, and readying military conscripts for the i
I have yet to make it past the first campaign mission. Whatever programming wizards you guys at Stardock are (and wizards you are), you just aren't storytellers, or at least not yet. We get yet another cliche-strewn science fiction "epic" pieced together with stuff we've all seen before a hundred times. Space guns, forced diplomacy, and planetary invasions are a lot of fun for a game, but they make terrible plot items -- look at Independance Day or the latest Star Wars films. The concept is
That's one really good idea!
Then there could be a standing fleet order like as in Hearts of Iron where if you suffer X amount of damage, then the mission is scrubbed, or you try to retreat.
I usually start with the engine and life support, and add the weapons the defenses last. The wepaons and defenses are usually based on a) what is the most highly researched in my menu, and b) what the enemy has to offer. All things being equal, I will pursue missiles first, but often diplomatic channels will allow me to attain higher level weapons in other categories. I still retain a nostalgic fondess for the nano-ripper and the cheesiness it used to represent. As for aesthestic
I like being Good! It's not always the easiest, but diplomacy is smooth, especially if you have a large Good Alliance. I'm waiting for the devs to finish reading their von Clausewitz so that defence will make more sense in 1.2, which ought to make playing Good a good deal better. Mind you, the size of galaxy you prefer to play would probably affect which faction to choose. I don't like to play anything bigger than Large, and with fairly limited planets, so there's usually not muc
Dollar for dollar, the best value in gaming definitely has to be Hearts of Iron:Doomsday, which is about 2/3 the price of GalCiv2. Doomsday also has an incredible AI, and truly deep diplomatic and economic play with a relatively simple interface. But Doomsday is crashy as all get-out, whereas GalCiv2 has benefitted from a steady stream of mostly welcome quality patches. Civ4 is truly a staggeringly beautiful game. It also benefits from an active mod community and has had good pat
I don't agree that the game is too short, but I do agree with an option to continue the game after the victory conditions are met. I wouldn't use it, but no doubt outhers would.
For the original poster: When you say you are building colony ships, are you actually building them? Some of the best investments you can make in the entire game are using the "buy ship now" functions to make a fleet of colonizers very quickly in the opening turns. Waiting to build each one is painfully slow.
There's a neat space border thingie in the movie "The Fifth Element", but that's more or less just for Earth (although it's hard to tell, as the "science" in the movie is weak [although again, it does feature topless Milla more than once, something we just won't ever get to see in GalCiv]). Physical space borders that extend into untold numbers of parsecs into space -considering that this game is supposed to only take place a couple of hundred of hears from now - seems like a waste
I used to be for pure weapons, especially beam weapons and engines, but recently I had a really rotten time with the Drengi. My fleets were larger and faster, and had better weapons. The Drengi had smaller fleets, fewer great weapons, and were slower. But what they did do was ambush me in a time of peace -- the attacker got to fire first, and my defense-free ships got slaughtered. The Drengi didn't wipe out my fleets by any stretch, but they did have more production than me, and I lost out b
I've found the tech research to be a bit too fast for my taste in the 1.1 patch, but I think I want to try modifying my gameplay before I change the tech rate. In my last game, I got to Alliances absurdly early (absurd for me), and quickly made two alliances, thinking that they would help with the Drengi next door. Instead, pretty much on the subsequent turn, one of my new allies got attacked by a civ I han't yet met from across unexplored space. I accepted the option to honour my treaty, and
I like to declare war by invading an undefended planet. I get a kick out of the message the robot sends me saying that due to the invasion, Target Civ X is very displeased with me, for "obvious reasons". Maybe it has something to do with my "Jerome Iginla"-class troop carrier landing directly on the Torian version of the White House and squashing it into a pancake.
Wow, jeez, just because the guy is having a few problems doesn't give the rest of us the right to call him names. Of course, for those of us who live in countries that allow for free speech, then yes, I guess the right is there, but the perogative to execute that right should be weighed against the potential of doing harm. Or to put it simply, you're being too hard on the guy. You don't have to bust his balls because he doesn't like the game. He can get Stardock to help him, if h
"First you get the money, then you get the powah. When you get the powah, then..., then you get the woman."
Initiative has been planned for the add-on, if I recall. I think the attacker gets too much of an advantage in both space and land battles. If you have equal opposing forces with equal firepower, the defender should win. In space battles, it would be interesting to see what would happen if we could have the defender get the first shot, rather than the attacker.
So much for von Clausewitz.
You can also factor in civ specialties for attack and defense bonuses, as well as hit point and ship strength bonuses you research. Finally, the attacking fleet gets to shoot first, which gives them at least one clear shot before they do a damage roll.
Pnakotus, that's a good idea, saving templates. I have yet to create any really beautiful ships, but some folks have, and there's a forum topic on that somewhere. Really, really beautiful ships. Personally, I try to create the ugliest, most unbalanced looking ships possible, but that's not easy either.
The 1.1 patch is ex-ceptional! Truly great work.
