Galactic Civilzations II: 21 Feb

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-02-22 09:29pm

Personally I don't think multiplayer belongs in 4X games like Gal Civ. It's too slow and boring.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-02-22 10:00pm

Vympel wrote:Personally I don't think multiplayer belongs in 4X games like Gal Civ. It's too slow and boring.

Tell that to the ST SEIV game. It's been intense.

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2006-02-23 02:28pm

What's the current players' verdict on the game? Is it good enough to topple MoO2, after all these years? Reading those game-play experience articles written by the gamemakers made me want it now, not February 28th (the local release date). I'm glad I didn't learn about the game until this thread...

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-02-23 03:06pm

MRDOD wrote:Ship design is both fun and a little frustrating since the hardpoints are so numerous I always fuck it up unless I zoom in so far I can't see the finished product. I've probably spent more time upgrading older ships to use newly developed engines/weapons/defenses and prettifying them then actually playing, all considered.

For a beam-weapons researcher, Miniaturization is a godsend, by the way. It's not fun having ships that can only fit a single laser cannon.

Ship design can be annoying until you figure out that it doesn't place stuff unless your mouse pointer is EXACTLY at the little redish hardpoint thingy. Once you figure that out (there is no close-to-position snap to mechanism) and get a feel of the camera control with the wheel/third mouse button for zoom/rotation, it turns fun and is actualy pretty efficient. You can churn out good looking (or goofy looking

if you wish) designs pretty fast.

About it and MoO2. No verdict yet. It's diffrent in some respects, but it is pretty much at that level. The big difference is that you never have a chance of building your empire at a pace and the way you would like unless you are playing with a compleatly castrated AI. Early game is a mad rush to colonise as much planets as possible. Before I got a hang of it again, having not played GalCiv1 for a year or two, I didn't colonise Mars for a very long time since it was inferior to pretty much anything else and I was slow out the gate in my colony ship production. Lo and behold the Yor come a long and plunk down some of their electronic trash there not giving a shit that it is in the middle of my empire. Knowing that they are resistant to cultural takeover I start researching tech needed for an ground invasion however, before I get anywhere, I've got that infestation going on, my research is still not good enough for ground invasions, and then a radom event fires off that one of my wackos offed the Altarian bossguy thus plunging me into a war with a much more militarily competent (at that point) race. While playing as an underdog is fun, the situation was untenable so I've scrapped that game.

Anyway, a few tips I've gathered for the early game:
- Build your own ships! The default classes are very very very unoptimised compared to what you can whip up. With just starting tech you can get a colony ship that is faster by 2 then the default for only a single turn or so longer build time
- consider outfiting a tiny frame with nothing but sensors. This gives you a small ship with a 18 sensor range which allows you to see whats going on in a pretty wide area around your starting point. It helps with your mental sanity when you can monitor the traffic of all the scouts and other crap ships the other empires like to have all over the place in the early game
- zoom out the view until you get the 2d representations instead of 3d models. While this is not as nice as viewing the 3d models it gives you a much clearer strategic view, not to mention being able to see more of it
- your homeworld should be spamming colony ships (the user designed fast kind!) from the first turn until you control your local star cluster, taking only a break to make one of the sensor ships after a colony or two
- in tech, go for the low hanging fruit at first. Trying to get something better during the expansion phase will only cripple you since research capability is being added very fast in the begining so time-to-tech-advance is much more important in keeping pace. Or you end up with one pretty cool tech and your enemies with all the basic stuff and researching your cool tech as a 4-turn low hanging fruit.

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2006-02-23 05:58pm

Obviously, you should get those colonies and bases by buying a Constructor or a Colony Ship or two at the onset right away to spam. Waiting for build times is for social projects of a large sort and for later-game things where you can mass produce like hell.

-In my experience, always go for Extreme Entertainment + Star Republic in the mid-game or earlier. They're long projects, but the latter gives you hella bonuses, and without the former your approval on large planets will suck and you'll likely lose elections.
-Defense techs seem better than Weapons at first, if you want defenses on your early ships.
-Medium Building is abolutely nescessary if you intend to fight a war. Any war. Until you can make things bigger than heavy fighters, you are crippled in warfare.
-Don't bother with Computer Military Ships, either. They're all much too slow and don't have enough defensive techs assigned. Design your own.
-Place 1 bc in each race's Espionage screen as soon as you make contact. Up it periodically, you'll have increased levels Infiltration much quicker with small investments over huge times.
-Diplomatic Translator rush seems to still be a good idea if you can spare a social project freezing on one planet for a few tens of weeks. The bonuses are rather immense. Same with other things like Restaurant of Eternity (+20% Influence = Teh Win).

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2006-02-23 07:35pm

Sorry to barge in, but Im guessing htis is a PC game as I can't find it anywhere in the applestore.

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2006-02-23 08:03pm

MRDOD wrote:-Don't bother with Computer Military Ships, either. They're all much too slow and don't have enough defensive techs assigned. Design your own.

From the two Dev AARs I've seen, not even the AI bothers with the default designs.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2006-03-01 02:12pm

Bought this game over the weekend and I LOVE it. I loved the first one as well and definately in the mold of MoOII.

At first I thought the whole "design your own ship" thing would get old real fast but I LOVE it, perhaps my favorite feature of the game. The 3D views are sweet and the diplomacy is really well done and realistic.

But I have a problem that is vexing me something terrible. I cannot seem to get my research up to snuff. I am consistently lagging behind the other empires and usually end up getting squashed militarily in mid game by one of the big boys. By behind I mean something like 8-10 techs behind the leaders.

I'm usually good at this kind of game - I do very well in all the Civs like games and such but for some reason my research sucks ass but my economy hums along beautifully. Any hints or suggestions would be nice.

Also I keep seeing references to this game Space Empires IV, is it similar to this one in terms of interface and game play style? Is it worth checking out?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-03-01 02:13pm

Stravo wrote:Also I keep seeing references to this game Space Empires IV, is it similar to this one in terms of interface and game play style? Is it worth checking out?

Google and read some reviews, but wait for SE-V, because SEIV can be easily described as spreadsheet in space.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-03-01 02:15pm

Is there a demo? This game sounds very tasty, but I'd like to make sure.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-03-01 02:19pm

I'm still waiting for this one. GC1 was at best, a mediocre game, with a planet system like Moo2, but none of the combat, design, or research complexity, etc. No custom ships and no tactical combat hurt it badly.

It does look somewhat better, but I'll wait.

Stravo, SEIV is a very different game. It's extremely moddable, and is very strong in the strategic department, but has a somewhat dull tactical. It's the best game you can play online however, and that's why we've got 3 games going right now.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2006-03-01 02:35pm

Hotfoot wrote:Is there a demo? This game sounds very tasty, but I'd like to make sure.

Check the website, they may have a demo avialable I just knew from my experience with the first one that I would love this one so I went ahead and bought it. Very nice gaming package.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2006-03-01 03:46pm

Stravo, I have to agree with both Ace and Nephtys in regards to SEIV. It's a good game that was pretty much made to be modded, so there are tons of fun mods out there. Designing ships can be very complex and fun, depending on the mod used. Tactical combat is rather dull, however. Wait for Space Empires V. It's got 3-D combat.

We'll probably still be doing SD.net SE games when V comes out. I can't speak for everyone, of course, but I know I sure as hell wouldn't mind having the board's official teller of tales join us in our games and RP threads.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-03-01 06:06pm

Trogdor wrote:Stravo, I have to agree with both Ace and Nephtys in regards to SEIV. It's a good game that was pretty much made to be modded, so there are tons of fun mods out there. Designing ships can be very complex and fun, depending on the mod used. Tactical combat is rather dull, however. Wait for Space Empires V. It's got 3-D combat.

Correction: Combat is rendered in 3D. It is still 2D for all intents and purposes. The only real difference is that it's advanced to a hex-based system from the inferior grid system.

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-03-01 06:24pm

I thought GC1 was fun. Feature wise it was quite spartan, though. I found out that GC2 comes out here on March 12th. So next Saturday. Sucks to be Australian. One thing I'm disappointed by in the feature list for GC2 is still no MOO2-style tactical combat. But still, that's a minor gripe. I can't wait to design my own ships and see them slug it out.

I get a distinct Babylon 5 feeling from GC2. What with the Dread Lords and everything. Should be awesome.

Of course, if they were smart someone would make a Babylon 5 4X game ...

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-03-02 03:39am

Well, the creators of GC2 are doing so much winks and nudges in the direction of mods for popular franchises that you'd think they are epileptic.

A bird of pray was already spotted inserted in the game, and this was done without any documentation by just exporting the model into the proper format and editing some xml files. Full documentation for modders is supposed to come out soonish...

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2006-03-02 03:47am

Somebody made a Star Destroyer:

pic 1

pic 2

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-03-02 04:15am

How is this game's tactical, anyway? Or is it more of a cutscene where the compy runs stuff?

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-03-02 04:24am

Somebody made a Star Destroyer:

Wow. That's awesome. Galactic Civilizations 2 is the kind of game where I plan what I'm going to call my ships months before I get the game. I've already decided that ship classes are going to be determined in accordance with the "-or" naming scheme of KDY.

Another option is a whole bunch of Russian class names, or, names from Battlestar Galactica. The list goes on and on

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-03-02 04:59am

Hey Vymp,

Isn't this game available for download?

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-03-02 05:23am

GuppyShark wrote:Hey Vymp,

Isn't this game available for download?

Yeah, but I don't want to do that. For one, it's a waste of my monthly bandwith (I have 10 gigs to play with before my speed is cut down to 64kbps) and with SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica to download this month (a 40 minute and 90 minute epiosde of Galactica and two 40 minute episodes of SG-1), combined with all my normal usage, downloading a full game is a tremendous strain.

There's also that I want it on disk so when I get a new PC I won't have to download it again.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-03-02 08:06am

Well, if I decide to pick it up myself, I'll burn it to disc and mail it to you. That should be legal, since it's just a roundabout way to download it - you'd need to buy the key to play.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-03-02 08:31am

How is combat handled?

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-03-02 08:33am

Vympel wrote:Yeah, but I don't want to do that. For one, it's a waste of my monthly bandwith (I have 10 gigs to play with before my speed is cut down to 64kbps) and with SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica to download this month (a 40 minute and 90 minute epiosde of Galactica and two 40 minute episodes of SG-1), combined with all my normal usage, downloading a full game is a tremendous strain.

There's also that I want it on disk so when I get a new PC I won't have to download it again.

Ick, 10gigs! I can D/L that in a day easely, and I have done so before.

Can't you get a unlimited plan or somthing?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-03-02 08:35am

Faram wrote:
Vympel wrote:Yeah, but I don't want to do that. For one, it's a waste of my monthly bandwith (I have 10 gigs to play with before my speed is cut down to 64kbps) and with SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica to download this month (a 40 minute and 90 minute epiosde of Galactica and two 40 minute episodes of SG-1), combined with all my normal usage, downloading a full game is a tremendous strain.

There's also that I want it on disk so when I get a new PC I won't have to download it again.
Ick, 10gigs! I can D/L that in a day easely, and I have done so before.

Can't you get a unlimited plan or somthing?

My thoughts, it's very weird to me that a backward place(technicly) like Israel has apprently far better cellular and internet services.