Galactic Civilizations II

Awesome, I've been looking forward to this. Probably going to pick it up over the weekend.
 
This one is high on my list. I might wanna wait for a demo first tho ...
 
I really enjoyed the first one, will probably get this later.:)
 
Yeah, I'm thinking this might be a nice one for the crappy weekend weather I'm due. I too wish there was a demo. I really don't like getting games without more information.
 
Fishlore said:
Yeah, I'm thinking this might be a nice one for the crappy weekend weather I'm due. I too wish there was a demo. I really don't like getting games without more information.
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Heed my advice, don't get Crashday

Yeah I got GCII yesterday, unfortunately there is no option if you fulfilled a winning objective, you cannot continue with that game (A feature of Civilization series that I really enjoyed, especially fnding out all the techs)

The build-your-own-ships is a nice feature as well, but it would be nice if there was an editor feature outside the game as well if you want to get down to the nitty gritty. The game encourages you to make your own ships as they are the only ones that you can upgrade, or change. You then have the option to upgrade previous ships of the same design with the price difference of the modules installed.

I have built 4 of my own designs so far, two that I have scrapped. But the two that I have kept are:

DGU: Assymetrically designed ship with a sort of hydro foil on the right side. Did a lot of tweaking, but now I don't purchase anything less. Useful for surgical strikes due to its high-speed, and has recently been upgraded to compliment a better laser.

'The Tunile' medium class cruiser: Looks similar to the Enterprise E, but with a more exotic backend. Initially installed with armor, but now with more efficient and lighter armor, I have had room to installed deflector shields on it as well. Plus it has a heavy laser cannon on its head. I tend to have fleets purely made of this kind of ship.
 
I'm probably gonna pick this game up :)

its only 40 bucks from ebgames, sweet.

I especially like this part from the gamespot review.

In the case of Galactic Civilizations II, an epic spacestrategy game set in space, that extra element is a design that is clearly focused on catering to the desires of the player, rather than on trying to stuff the designer's preferences down your throat. From installation to end game, it is clear that this is not only one of the best turn-based strategy games to grace a PC, but one in which the player is treated like royalty.

The first sign of this is during installation. There is no copy protection and no need to have the CD in the tray to play, and you don't even have to enter the serial number during the install (a blessing to those of us who want to reinstall a game in the future or install it on a notebook but can't ever seem to track down the serial number). This is quite convenient. The serial number is your key to updates and add-ons, which have traditionally, for Stardock, been plentiful, substantive, and responsive to customer feedback and requests (in fact, the first update is already available).
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EDIT: I bought it from the company's website. They allow the option to buy it from them... it elts you download the game, and they'll send you the cd in the mail too... only extra price compared to the download version is 5 bucks for shipping and handling.
 
Raziaar said:
EDIT: I bought it from the company's website. They allow the option to buy it from them... it elts you download the game, and they'll send you the cd in the mail too... only extra price compared to the download version is 5 bucks for shipping and handling.
Click to expand...

Thats good, considering at least then, you have a hard copy in case something happens to the downloaded version.
 
God damn, when I get my first pay. This is one game I'm buying and not downloading.

No serial when installing? only used to get updates? HELL YEAH! These devs have something great between their ears! Just because they are skipping copy protection is a VERY good reason to buy this game. Let's hope others will follow suit!
 
Man, this game has an incredible learning curve, at least for me... but i'm slowly getting into it, after spending time adjusting.

But granted, i'm at the stage in my life right now that nothing seems to interest me that once did(deppression bullshit)... so its still amazing that i even played it for 10 hours straight!

The ship constructer thing is truely awesome.
 
Well after a weekend of playing this game fairly hard, I have to say I really like it. I agree Death eVader that building your own ships is absolutely of paramount importance and a fun feature as well.

My first game was going great. I got a nice section of the 'verse during the initial space grab. I had about four nice sized planets on a medium map. I was doing a great job of slowly building up the defenses in the core of my civ. There had been a long term war going on between the two biggest civs. Eventually the breaking point came and the guy I was helping, not overtly mind you but quietly feeding them tech and ships, had to fold and he gave me three new planets in the middle of a huge swath of soon to be enemy space.

Great, thanks for the planets, but they couldn't have been in a worse place. So one minute I was quietly minding my own, then the next minute I have two civs declare war on me and they pinpointed my soft underbelly. Enemy fleets started springing up everywhere. Not completely a surprise, but I simply didn't have the fleet to defend it. I sent my best northern fleet from my defended home core down to these new planets where I hoped to mount a serviceable defense.

All of a sudden the smallest of the three new acquisitions threatens to jump sides since my loyalty modifiers were crappy. *Ding* and idea moves to the front of my brain. Immediately I give that planet (class 5) to the weaker of my two new enemies with some tech for peace. Phew, now only one enemy to concentrate on.

To make a long story short, the planet I gave away eventually flipped from the first enemy I gave it to, to the main enemy since it was in their space. This ticked of the other guys and a war started between the two people that initially ganged up on me. I quietly left the conflict and thought everything was going to be okay. Since the bulk of my fleet was still at the new front, my home core was weaker than it should have been. It was at this time that my ally for the whole game, a minor race mind you, swooped in and ninja'd my main class 19 planet. Eventually it was too much to overcome and I lost the game, but only because this minor race had luck on it's side and found 2 Ranger Precursors that literally decimated my fleet that was going to exact revenge for their betrayal.

Fun game with good strategy elements. Good AI. Looks and sounds nice. Thumbs up from me.
 
Minor races expand? Interesting... the manual says they don't. Granted, I havent even seen a minor race yet. I only played a tiny map to get used to the game.
 
Raziaar said:
Minor races expand? Interesting... the manual says they don't. Granted, I havent even seen a minor race yet. I only played a tiny map to get used to the game.
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Very good point. I'm still getting new to the races and it wasn't a minor. They only had one other world though so I made that incorrect assumption.
 
DEATH eVADER said:
Heed my advice, don't get Crashday
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LOL, I will heed this advice.

DEATH eVADER said:
Yeah I got GCII yesterday, unfortunately there is no option if you fulfilled a winning objective, you cannot continue with that game (A feature of Civilization series that I really enjoyed, especially fnding out all the techs)
Click to expand...

I haven't reached the end game yet and I'm also disappointed that they didn't inherit this Civ feature.

DEATH eVADER said:
I have built 4 of my own designs so far, two that I have scrapped. But the two that I have kept are:

DGU: Assymetrically designed ship with a sort of hydro foil on the right side. Did a lot of tweaking, but now I don't purchase anything less. Useful for surgical strikes due to its high-speed, and has recently been upgraded to compliment a better laser.

'The Tunile' medium class cruiser: Looks similar to the Enterprise E, but with a more exotic backend. Initially installed with armor, but now with more efficient and lighter armor, I have had room to installed deflector shields on it as well. Plus it has a heavy laser cannon on its head. I tend to have fleets purely made of this kind of ship.
Click to expand...

Nice. I might have to "borrow" a few of these ideas. I've been using the approach in this game that a good offense... is a good offense. I tend to max each hull type with laser/plasma weapons and light and fast engines with nothing else including defense. I was starting to think about how the combat works though and might rethink my strategy.

It seems the AI goes after one ship until it dies before attacking another in fleet combat. Does it go for the most potent offensive ship first or the most potent defensive ship first, or does it base it on a calculation of both?
 
Fishlore said:
It seems the AI goes after one ship until it dies before attacking another in fleet combat. Does it go for the most potent offensive ship first or the most potent defensive ship first, or does it base it on a calculation of both?
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Don't know, I didn't think we had the option of changing the targetting settings. Are you talking about combat AI or enemy AI in general?
 
DEATH eVADER said:
Don't know, I didn't think we had the option of changing the targetting settings. Are you talking about combat AI or enemy AI in general?
Click to expand...

When my fleet attacks an AI fleet for example, it seems like the AI go for one ship in my fleet until it dies before they go after another one until it dies. One turn of the AI's combat doesn't seem to spread damage over multiple ships. All damage inflicted in one turn of the AI's combat is on one ship. Next turn they'll attack that ship again if it exists or until it dies before they look at the next ship.

This is just something I noticed, I might be wrong and I didn't read it anywhere. I defnitely don't think this is something that changes, but rather a part of the AI decision making for picking a target to attack.

I'm just curious if they go after the ship with the most HPs, the ship that is the most powerful on offense, the most powerful on defense or if this is solved by some sort of computation taking several things into account.

For example if the AI ships would always go after the ship with the most HPs first, then I could give that ship nothing but defense and an engine and have a bunch of weaker ships with nothing but guns and an engine to take out the enemy while they're spending their time on my tank ship.
 
Fishlore said:
When my fleet attacks an AI fleet for example, it seems like the AI go for one ship in my fleet until it dies before they go after another one until it dies. One turn of the AI's combat doesn't seem to spread damage over multiple ships. All damage inflicted in one turn of the AI's combat is on one ship. Next turn they'll attack that ship again if it exists or until it dies before they look at the next ship.

This is just something I noticed, I might be wrong and I didn't read it anywhere. I defnitely don't think this is something that changes, but rather a part of the AI decision making for picking a target to attack.

I'm just curious if they go after the ship with the most HPs, the ship that is the most powerful on offense, the most powerful on defense or if this is solved by some sort of computation taking several things into account.

For example if the AI ships would always go after the ship with the most HPs first, then I could give that ship nothing but defense and an engine and have a bunch of weaker ships with nothing but guns and an engine to take out the enemy while they're spending their time on my tank ship.
Click to expand...

This is what the manual states.

Fleet Battles
In a fleet battle, the attacking side adds together all of its attacks
against a single defending ship, even if the defender is also a
fleet (in which case the most lethal but most easily destroyed
defending ship is targeted first). Then the roles are reversed until
one of the fleets is destroyed.
This allows for some very interesting battles. Imagine a
Dreadnought with five Phasor Cannons (20 beam attack), three
Harpoon Missiles (9 missile attack), and one Singularity Driver (4
mass driver attack). This capital ship has 40 hit points.
Now imagine it’s being attacked by a squadron of 4 fighters, each
equipped with two Mark III Plasma Cannons (4 beam attack).
All four of the fighters get to take their shot before the capital ship
can respond. So each one rolls between 1 and 4. Since there
are 4 of them, that means an attack between 4 and 16 against
the Dreadnought. But consider that each fighter only has 12 hit
points.
Suffice to say it’s going to be a close call.
Click to expand...
 
You can be a small development house and still make a game people like. Word of mouth is absolutely crucial. I also am convinced that having the developers themselves interact in the forums directly is important as well. It lets us hear issues people run into. We've also learned a lot in the process. I also think that putting out timely regular updates is key as well. In fact, we're planning to put up the final version of 1.0X tonight. Lots of new video options, AI tweaks, glitch fixes, that nasty hard drive formatting bug if you're using an ATI or nVidia card (just kidding) should help spice things up.

Once 1.0X is out, we'll start talking about what we want to do with 1.1. We have a lot of ideas ranging from random alien players, being able to create your own custom players, UI support for mods, and of course putting in user requested features, tweaks, etc. But that'll be in a few weeks. 1.0X will likely be the version where we take a bit of a breather. People who visit our IRC channel (#galciv on irc.stardock.com) will be able to access our daily internal build if they're feeling particularly masochistic.
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Mother of god, don't you just ****ing LOVE these guys? They're gamers trying to please gamers. They're not solely in the buisness of turning a profit and moving on like alot of others. It's awesome.
 
Raziaar said:
Mother of god, don't you just ****ing LOVE these guys? They're gamers trying to please gamers. They're not solely in the buisness of turning a profit and moving on like alot of others. It's awesome.
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That is the truth. I've been to their official forums and you have developers actually interacting with forum members and even quickly fixing code and showing the forumites code examples. I'm truley amazed and agree that this is a great company. I'm almost happy about giving them my money.

About the fleet attack question I had earlier. I found this site. It really helps with the game concepts and even has quite a few calculations that are running behind the scenes.

http://galciv.wikicities.com/wiki/Fleet_Combat

Here they say the ship being attacked is chosen by the following formula.

Total Attack / (Total Defense + Hit Points)
 
Fishlore said:
When my fleet attacks an AI fleet for example, it seems like the AI go for one ship in my fleet until it dies before they go after another one until it dies. One turn of the AI's combat doesn't seem to spread damage over multiple ships. All damage inflicted in one turn of the AI's combat is on one ship. Next turn they'll attack that ship again if it exists or until it dies before they look at the next ship.
Click to expand...

The only time when this really feels unnecessary is when you are fighting the dreads lords. Luckily they don't regenrate in space so just send wave after wave of ships at them, eventually you destroy one ship :laugh:
 
Man, I *LOVE* this developer! They're so hearfelt to their fanbase. Here's a post on their news page about the update they plan to release soon.


http://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=161&AID=111075




They say that no game can be all things to all people. But that doesn't mean one can't try. When people see our change logs for the upcoming v1.1 they notice they're huge but what a change log can't tell is the overall goal of a particular version. Taken on their own, a change log can look arbitrary, even casual in what's being changed. Why are we doing this? Is there a unified vision of what's being changed?

So the first question is, why are we doing these updates? The answer to that has everything to do with word of mouth. Why is an little indie game like Galactic Civilizations amongst the top selling titles at the major retailers? Surely, it must be the awesome, intimidating Stardock marketing juggernaut. Maybe not. Maybe it has something to do with you -- strategy gamers. Strategy gamers who recommended the game to their friends and coworkers for a variety of reasons. It's a win-win situation. We do everything we can to make sure you're satisfied with your purchase and we benefit from good word of mouth because of the free user-input updates.

Typically, a person buys a game, plays it for a month, maybe two, and then it's gone. If they like the game, they may recommend it to their friends. Our updates are about extending the game's lifespan. The longer we can keep the game interesting to you, the player, the more value you received from your purchase and the better off we are since it extends the time that you're playing the game. We also see it as our responsibility. It's a single player game. Therefore, we have a duty to keep enhancing it to make it fresh, this is particularly true of the computer AI.

We've been making Galactic Civilizations in one form or other for 12 years now (the original OS/2 version was released in 1994). And yet it continues to evolve. We're happy that the game has gotten such good reviews. And we're very happy most people seem to like it. But the favorable reception of the game was important for another reason: Doing updates after release, especially ones that add new features naturally beg the question: Didn't they finish the game? Had the initial reaction to the game been negative, then that would be a very legitimate question. It's one of the reasons we self-published Galactic Civilizations II. We could wait until we were happy with the game to release it. And that way we could do updates without fear of people saying "Well look at all these updates, it must not have been done".

And that brings us back to v1.1. What are we trying to do with it? There are 5 main goals for v1.1:

1. Better Computer Players. Nearly every review has focused on how good the computer AI is. We're very jazzed about that. But like all strategy games, there are a certain % of people who find it too hard and a certain % of people who find it too easy. The goal of 1.1 is to make the game play easier at lower difficulty levels so that players can be gradually introduced to the game while making the AI much more challenging at higher levels by being smarter, more sophisticated. For example, a lot of work has been put onto tech trading, handling of transports, ship tactics, planet improvement handling, etc. We read forums, not just here but all over the net. We lurk. We hear what strategies people employ. If it's an exploit, we plug it. If it's just a really clever strategy, we extend the computer AI to deal with it. The goal of 1.1 is to have computer AIs that blatantly play smarter.
2. Cleaner Game Mechanics. The economic system of GalCiv II is essentailly a hold-over from GalCiv I which was a hold over from the OS/2 version. The goal with 1.1 is to make it clear where the numbers come from, make sure they're intuitive, and make balance tweaks based on player feedback. We're adding in more tool tips so that players can see where things come from, how they're derived. We're tweaking costs, bonuses, etc. There is no such thing as a perfect balance. A good balance to a strategy game is derived by how people play that game. We listen to how people actually play the game and then adjust it based on that. Nothing particularly dramatic (though social production no longer being wasted is a pretty big change but it's something we've had months to think about), mostly things that just make the game feel...better.
3. Better User Interface. When you read how people in the real world are playing your game, it makes sense to try to cater to those playing styles. For example, the ship designer has become incredibly popular. We had no idea it would be such a big deal to design your own ships in a free form way. So we've put in time to make it better. Other players wanted better ways of managing units, selecting units, keeping track of where units were going, so we have been working on that as well. More hot keys have been added, more buttons added, and so forth. The overall goal is to improve the game so that you're focusing on having fun (it's a game after all) and the user interface stays out of the way.
4. Modding. The long-term viability of many games is modding. We see it as our job to make sure that modding isn't just something techies can do but rather something anyone can do to the game. We have some experience in this given that we do run the world's largest Windows modding community. When the modding is done, players will be able to download a mod and then from the game point to that mod and make use of all its changes without having to mess around with editors and images. To help in mod creation, 1.1 will include a pretty significant set of mods in itself to use as examples.
5. More Gameplay options. This is something that will be an on-going thing. We don't want to have a crazy # of options, but we do want people to be able to have the game play the way they want. For instance, some people don't like tech trading. So we put in an option to eliminate it. Other people didn't like that you could see where the other empires were from the first turn, so we put an option to not be able to see controlled territories until those areas were explored. Some people don't like minor races, so we put an option to not have them.

Our schedule right now is to have another beta this week which should introduce the modding. We will continue to iron out bugs in the beta, tweak balance, and then after that we'll release it as a non-beta. Originally we wanted to get 1.1 "done" by the end of March. But we wanted to have some extra time to tweak and balance things, which in turn add bugs, which in turn have to be fixed. But we're getting pretty close now. Hopefully users of v1.1 beta 2 like what they see. And soon it'll be done.

And then what? Then we'll start in v1.2 with features we haven't even thought of yet.
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