GalCiv II: v1.1 Preview

[Citizen Philip]

Directly from the GalCiv2 website (http://forums.galciv2.com/index.aspx?ForumID=161&AID=107300):

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords v1.1 is in development. We've got a lot of new features planned. The list below is by no means comprehensive. It's just some of the things we're focusing on:

The ability to set a given planet as a technology, research, ship building or balanced planet, . NOT like the overall focus. It would literally add a 9% boost to a given type (or 3%, 3%, 3%).
[* ]Color coded the hammers/etc. based on whether they are bonus or not. Then on mouse over, which by then should be very nice, we can display where these numbers come from.
On game setup, have an option to simply set up how many players you want to play against and have it randomly pick who you’re playing with.
On game setup, have a checkbox that says "Randomize intelligence". The result would be that the game difficulty would be used to distribute the intelligence points. Example: I could select "Tough" and then have this checkbox selected and it would look at the # of players and the total number of intelligent points it takes to have tough and then distribute it out so that some are smarter than others (up to a 30% difference between intelligences).
Lots of tweaks to the context window UIs which we’ll be discussing how best to do it.
Fleet Manager screen.
An option to show auto pilot ships destinations on map with a very very faint line (dotted preferably if possible) where they are going. Ala the trade routes.
Etc...
We expect to have this out by the end of the month. It'll be free for all customers of Galactic Civilizations II -- now at a store near you.
Lookin' good!

[agentgray]

Excitement.

Stardock has truly delivered an excellent product. They have made all the right decisions with development and distrobution, and I'm glad it's been successful.

I am constantly getting trashed, but eventually the brain will kick in and I'll be good.

[Cool AN]

Lookin' good

You bet it does.

[carneconcarne]

anybody here play in the online metaverse thing?

[Citizen Philip]

I only got it on Friday, and haven't had much of a chance to play

[Mason]

Excitement.

Stardock has truly delivered an excellent product. They have made all the right decisions with development and distrobution, and I'm glad it's been successful.

I am constantly getting trashed, but eventually the brain will kick in and I'll be good.
The trick is to dominate the planet grab. Spend your first few turns 100% researching Impulse Engines. Buy a lab first turn, then two factories in subsequent turns. Once all of those are done, crank up military production and you can crank out 1 colony ship every 2 turns (with speed 6, or speed 5 and a slightly longer range), usually with 10% or so left over for research purposes.

Once you've grabbed everything in sight, switch to around 100% planetary construction to get everything going (for as long as you can afford, managing money is the biggest trick to all of this). You'll end up with some juicy real estate.

I'm sure that far better tactics are required against the top-end AI, but starting like this gives you a solid edge on the mid-level AI, which will still usually out-economy you near the beginning no matter what you do. The main impulse to avoid is always to keep military/social/research balanced. It's really hard to compete like that.

[Mason]

That said, I really need them to fix some ridiculous bugs.

Way too many times I've conquered a planet, only to notice that for some strange reason it now has something like 400 trillion people. The first time, when I ended my turn, I lost half my empire, because a planet with that many people and 1 entertainment outlet obviously leads to 1% morale, so various planets seceded in disgust. Of course the next turn the population was back down to normal levels, but still, half of my empire gone in a turn. Now when it happens I just destroy the colony and recolonize the planet. That's gotta get fixed.

[jbavon]

The trick is to dominate the planet grab. Spend your first few turns 100% researching Impulse Engines.

Thats a good tactic, if you're playing the larger maps. I prefer the smaller ones, so large scale planetgbrabbing is out of the question as most planets are colonized quickly.

Instead I tend to use my money buying colony ships so I can get to the few planets that are available, first.

[Rakael]

I need this game. I haven't ever given the empire sims a chance, as I never really had the patience. Now though, I feel that I could devote enough time and energy to one and really enjoy myself.

[agentgray]

What planets are you guys colonizing? (I go 5 and higher). Just grab anything hospitable?

I've been trying to go the diplomatic/economic route. I guess I need to beef up the research/military.

I buy the lab/factories but they take so blessed long to build.

[Cool AN]

What planets are you guys colonizing? (I go 5 and higher). Just grab anything hospitable?



I usually go for any thing over 7, then what I got the best ones I start colonizing the others. The only problem with this is there become big holes between my boarders and the AI some times grabs the one I haven't taken.

[Mason]

Thats a good tactic, if you're playing the larger maps. I prefer the smaller ones, so large scale planetgbrabbing is out of the question as most planets are colonized quickly.

Instead I tend to use my money buying colony ships so I can get to the few planets that are available, first.
Well yeah, if ~5 colony ships are all you need for the best planets then buying them works, but that's only on tiny/small maps, which I kind of find boring.

[Mason]

What planets are you guys colonizing? (I go 5 and higher). Just grab anything hospitable?

I've been trying to go the diplomatic/economic route. I guess I need to beef up the research/military.

I buy the lab/factories but they take so blessed long to build.

It depends. I mostly play medium/default maps, so usually I go for the 10+ planets first, unless you need to extend your range to colonize further systems. You can fill in the little stuff later, and if the computer grabs one deep in your territory it's usually pretty easy to influence it back under your control by the mid-game.

Diplomatic is good stuff, but you do need other strengths. If the computer outclasses your military by 1/3 or so, they'll start to feel aggressive toward you, no matter what your diplomacy or other +relationship factors are like. Even if you're going for an allied victory, you'll need a decent deterrent force.

Like I said above, once you're past the colonization phase, crank up social production and overall production to near 100% (taxes up to 49% or so helps). You'll lose a lot of money each turn, but your planets will also blast through their build queues. If you need more money to keep going at that pace, you can sell lesser non-diplomatic technologies to your neighbors (more diplomacy = more money). If you sell a technology, though, sell it to everyone you can in the same round, because the computer trades like crazy behind the scenes.

Remember to specialize your planets. You want some great ship-builders, some research hubs, and some money/influence planets. Don't usually bother with starports on your research/money planets, or embassies on your ship production planets. The various capitals make this especially useful, they can contribute a lot if you put them on the properly specialized planets.

[laggerific]

Are they going to add support for 1280x720 resolutions? Cause that's what I'm stuck at and I can't get it to run. Perhaps if I can get my lemon TV replaced with a 1080p model it won't be an issue, but that has yet to be determined.

[RMan]

This does look like a cool game, I'm still a little civ'd out after Civ4, but soon I may have to get this one. How is it with the end-game, I invariably get bored with Civ4 (and all the civ games really) after about 1950's because it seems there are few real choices, just attrition. Does this one keep a good pacing throughout?

[Spigot]

I did win on a tiny map with one other race. I spread my culture like so much yogurt on the bagel of the galaxy.

Whenever I play against more than one race on anything larger than tiny, I get creamed. I'm learning, slowly, what needs to be done. I am just rather out of practice and am used to the Civ-style romps to victory.