Sidesteppingsuperman

Reply to Quest for a "lighter, more casual Galciv" in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

By the way, thanks everyone, esp. Zyxpsilon for your comments.

Reply to Quest for a "lighter, more casual Galciv" in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Maybe I'll spend time playing around with the new editor in Arnor and see how much I can pare off this thing to make it lose some weight. As great as Galciv is, maybe there's a great "lite" game in there somewhere too after gutting it a good bit. That may sound strange, but I'd like to see movement in the direction of simplicity, in keeping with some of what made MOOI, Spaceward Ho!, and Stars! successful. It's probably up to the modders to do it too since there's probably no money in it given h

Quest for a "lighter, more casual Galciv" in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Hello... I love Galactic Civilizations. But the thought of getting into another game of it makes me take a deep breath of mental preparation for all the mental involvement it demands. Relaxing at the game is not realistic because it's so demanding and immersive. Are there any heroic modders out there who've found ways to strip things out of it and "lightened up" the game for the less mentally mighty like me? I was just curious. I'd like the game to go a little better with my beer and pretzels in

Reply to GalCiv 2 and the blind in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

You know, after thinking about it, diplomacy might be possible somehow if something is true about the saved game file. It's just that I noticed that when the player interracts with the AI, it makes decisions on the fly or "live", based upon what you offer in that moment. I'm trying to remember from way back when Brad Wardell posted some info on how diplomacy worked between turns. Maybe offers can be sent via saved game file. I'm not sure if trades are recorded in the save game after they happen

Reply to GalCiv 2 and the blind in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I see what you are saying. I guess I'm looking at this from a third party perspective, since a third party would probably be the one to make an interface for Galciv 2. So it looks like the map information can be strictly obtained from a saved game file then and described in grid fashion which is what you are comfortable with. I think that a description of the map as a grid or anything else can be made from a saved game file without needing to obtain anything from the screen. However, fo

Reply to GalCiv 2 and the blind in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

As a programmer, what occurs to me as a solution to the technical problem of doing this as a mod would be: 1. Writing an app that samples the screen bitmap for GalCiv 2 at a settable rate or when the user indicates it is to do so 2. The app would then use an optical character recognition library (common and available) to read the text it can find on the GalCiv 2 screen to decide which screen it's looking at 3. Knowing which GalCiv 2 screen it's looking at would then let i

Reply to No city lights on planets in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I do occasionally see them and I think it's a great touch to the game. I like studying geography and seeing those cities at night time inspires the perverted desire to write fanboy fiction about how the geography caused those cities to develop and spread over that particular world. However, I have noticed quite often that of multiple random worlds of close population (10 billion), only one or rarely two will show city lights. This was during

Reply to where are the planet city lights? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Just wanted to add my observations to this as well. I see no city lights on worlds of any state of development/population/class on the main map. I have seen them on the planet detail screen however (double-click on planet -> Detail button). My card is a GeForce FX6200 w/256MB . I also want to point out Stardock's outstanding diligence in taking note of this kind of feedback, so no doubt they've seen this thread and will get to it when they get to it.</

Reply to Question about snail-mail ETA in Galactic Civilizations II Stardock Forums

That guy was probably me Every night I'd get just a little bit more... Got it now; great game guys

Reply to defending against destabilization in Strategies Stardock Forums

I build starbases with cultural upgrades in the threatened sector to raise my own influence there. It works.

Reply to Fun WAR story--post yours, too! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

For my curiosity's sake, what is the typical game date year (22xx) that you wrap the game up in?

Ability to pay off leases mid to late game wanted in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

How about it? Do governments pay off debts or do they default? Would this be too much detail for the game?

Reply to Question about your anti-piracy scheme and downloading the game in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I was just wanting to avoid the hassle of trying to recover it should it happen. I have a 56k dialup and wanted to use a friend's higher bandwidth connection. So will it happen? Who may I ask for confirmation, if I may? Recording the IP is a good idea to keep out the casual, but the determined can just spoof it can't they? In that case a key would be made up of the serial number plus the IP address associated with it. Thanks for the help.

Question about your anti-piracy scheme and downloading the game in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Will my serial number will get canned if I try to download GalCiv from a friend's DSL on another ISP/IP address that is different from the one that I registered on? Just a yes or no question will suffice.

Reply to Bonus Pack Question in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Maybe it should say, "Social Build Notifications - On/Off". Or maybe I'm just overly dense...

Reply to Bonus Pack Question in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Thank you. That particular option was unintuitive. Perhaps its text should be altered somewhat?

Reply to Bonus Pack Question in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I am playing a legitimate beta that I payed for, by the way.

Reply to Bonus Pack Question in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

(I didn't want to start a new thread for this one and thought it might go well here): Is there a way to switch off the planet screen so that it doesn't pop up for all of your planets at the beginning of each and every turn when an item has been built? Thanks

Reply to Possible mod idea -- Mark Miller's Traveller in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Ah, finally an original idea. I think that if I see someone suggest another Star Trek mod...

Suggestion for managing the building of trade goods in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Since trade goods are unique and for wonders for that matter, would the following behavior reduce micromanagement a little?: When a world has a trade good or other unique item in the social build queue, remove it from all others to reduce the amount of stuff a player has to scroll through. I've found it gets somewhat overwhelming after a while having to keep track of which world is building which unique item, so that I don't duplicate. Have I missed something?

Reply to Correct pronunciation of 'Drengin' wanted in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It's likely that there is a significant variance in how people pronounce 'Drengin'. What would a poll reveal I wonder?

Reply to Correct pronunciation of 'Drengin' wanted in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Ah, I thought so. Thanks.

Correct pronunciation of 'Drengin' wanted in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Brad, I've got to know: is it pronounced according to American English grammar rules as in "Drenjin", or is it the most likely alternative, "Drengun"? (I'm a Texan)

Reply to Diplomacy polish in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Likely too late for this but I will try: My starbases in foreign space sure would make nice bargaining chips... And there is no where to do that. Surely they can be traded like ships, but I know that extra AI code would have to go along with it.

Reply to Game change: New seeding in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Random is indeed good for gameplay, IMO. It gives a unique character to each game. There's no kind of fun like starting out with a bad hand and coming out on top and then surveying the road you had to take. Perhaps this would be a good thing to add to the game setup options?