|
OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
In short I like the game thus far. After buying that dismal POS Masters Of Orion 3, and being bilked for it, I am pleased to finally have a game that offers a good sense of game play combined with a good AI. Galciv is not what one would expect right from the box, and that is good. The User Interface is good, intuitive, and easy to learn. I had no problem learning the game and getting right into it. As far as complexity goes, well Galciv is not Space Empires IV, but it does have some really good points. I like the diplomacy thus far in Galciv far better than that of SEIV. However, SEIV is a better-looking game in many regards, but the eye candy movies offered in Galciv are a wonderful bonus. In all, I would rate Galciv just under what I rated SEIV. That is good given the fact that I bombed Masters Of Orion 3 hard core. I hope that Stardock continues to support Galciv as well as Malfador and Shrapnel Games have supported Space Empires IV. With that said, go out and buy this game, and have some fun. (7 out of 10)
[ March 26, 2003, 23:06: Message edited by: Atrocities ] |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Come on, Atrocities, Moo3 wasn't really *that* bad of a game. I mean, sure, I plucked down $50 and still haven't finished my first game yet. And, yes, I uninstalled the game from my hard drive less than a week after installing it. But, really, it's a pretty good game--or will be by the time it reaches the magical Version number of stability for all Master of Orion games: 1.3
(Of course, with MOO3, they may need to release their incremental patches by ten-thousandths instead of tenths...) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I am afraid that the best course of action for Moo3 is to start over.
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I have played exactly 1 game of GalCiv. It was OK and I got my arse whupped. I guess I'll read the manual before I start the second game!
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
MOO3 WAS a POS ^^, glad I bought from EB so I could return it. Anyway how's combat, I mean I know it's not "tactical" combat, but does it actually take ANY skill at all in warfare other than "I have bigger badder ships than you". I'm thinking of buying Galactic Civs, looks very good.
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Well I have played my third game thus far. I must admit, it is not much to look at for star system details. (Moo3 still hold the top award here for galaxy map) but SEIV hold the best layout for star systems. GalCiv does a great job at drawing you into the game play. I must admit that I have really enjoyed it.
I have started messing around with the data files. I have also discovered that I can not, at least at this point, add new ship images. I think they are all 3d Models saved in the GFx folder as .MDL files. I have not been able to open them with any program I have. I have one other program I can try, but it is on another PC. I will have to get it for this PC. The same program I used to view the SFC models. Overall, the game is fun. I hope others find it that way as well. Now if we could combine the best of SEIV with the best of Moo3 and now Galciv, we would have a truly epic 4x game for all. (Galciv reminds me more of BOTF than SEIV.) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
By the pics it looks like there are not systems like in SE4.
Any news about a demo? |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
yea... just picked it up... so will try it on the weekend if i am not as busy as i have been the Last few weeks...IRC I miss thee
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I played the beta and am now waiting for my CD to arrive.
The battles are Civ like and the effects of technology are sometimes abstracted (get a new weapons tech and all your ship might get +10% attack). The economy model isn't resource based and you can actually fund things through debt (purchase a colony ship and pay back money over time). The developers have also been very active on the forum (during the beta phase anyway). Its quite a good game as long as your not expecting a MOO or SEIV clone. Askan |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Last time I've heard, the demo is not coming out until mid-April.
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
The #1 problem for me in MOO3 is the lack of options once you go into the 3D combat screen. It requires the battle to go until finished or 10 minutes--whichever comes first. If you have two unarmed ships (or perhaps so lightly armed that neither will ever die), then it will always take 10 minutes. So, if you have three or four such combats, you have to get up and go get a cup of coffee every time there is a ship combat.
Because of this rather significant flaw, I never even got to the point where I found out that the game has no AI. Even if they release a patch for the AI next month, I'm still not going to reinstall the game. I'm playing Gal Civ now. It has some interesting features. But I'm still struggling through the interface in my first game. The AI is pretty tough. I've got it set to 'Cakewalk', and I'm trying to just press rush through the turns so that I can see what cool technologies I get. But even at the absolutely easiest level of difficulty, I'm gonna lose if I don't at least do *something*. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
My review of Galciv:
I've played through it now, twice, and tend to agree with what's been said, so far. The combat is EXACTLY like the "Civilization" series. Your units have attack and defense values, and hit points. I don't feel this lends itself well to a large research model, where you're researching "Shields", and "Phasors", just to get an increase in attack points, or a new unit that features said upgrade. They might as well have just had "levels" of research in Attack, Defense, communication, etc. (Level 1, level 2) It would have simplified things, I think.. The diplomacy is very good. Trading and communication is easy and thorough. No one else has mentioned it, but there is NO multiplayer capability. A couple of gripes about diplomacy : NO SURRENDER. All I can do is quit. I would like to have had a scoreboard, or something, similar to Civilization. It would make the single player games, ultimately more interesting. I don't like how you can only attack star systems, and not planets. You also can't GLASS a planet/system, like you can in SEIV. You can only capture it. My overall score would be "Average". It's not great, IMHO, but it's a lot more playable then MOO 3. --Ed |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Sounds interesting, but I don't like the having defense and attck values instead of unique atrributes for armor, shields, weapons and such. I think I'll just break down and get the Gold SE IV instead (I have the classic).
And yes, MOO 3 goes down in my book as well as a POS. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Well, it looks like SE4 still the ruling king of 4Xs.
The thing from GalCiv that got my attention was those political parties. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I think it is really safe to say that SEIV is a true 4x game. Sure it has some areas for improvement, but overall, SEIV is the game that all other 4x games strive to be.
How Aaron nailed this only proves how well he understood 4x gaming. With inventive improvements to INTEL, Diplomacy, and Politics, SE V should really be the game that defines the 4x market for years to come. Just like SE IV has become. Too bad more hard core 4x fans have not yet discovered this game. Believe me when I say that I have been spreading the word. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
SEIV- all of the features and flexibility I was hoping for in this game. I like the race editor a lot. Galciv- Has a lot of things that I have enjoyed about games in the past (SMAC). The game is not easy however. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
The game manual recommends playing your first Gal Civ game in a small galaxy. But I'm playing in a large galaxy, and my first game is taking quite a long time. Since I haven't even finished my first game, I don't want to give a lot of specifics. But at this point, I rate the game a little lower than MOO3.
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
What I have found is that I run out of money fast producing Colony ships and only have about 3 or 4 colonies. I then spend the next 200 turns getting out of debt and not researching squat as I have no funds.
Around turn 200 +/- 20 or so, The enemy AI starts to take over my planets. This has been this way for all the games I have played. I have read a lot about the strategy of the game, but still find that I am lacking in ability to adiquitely get my empire off and running. Then there are the people who cheat and post their empires to the Metauniverse. Come on guys, altering the game via a Hex editor (How you do this is beyond me) or by the use of a trainer, go cheat o matic, is cheating, and eventually the folks at GalCiv will root you out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif But I am tempted to use something just to make it past the first 200 or so turns without getting wiped out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Great game, not as indepth or detailed as SE IV, but it has a lot of really nice aspects and some nice cut scenes. Excellent, thus far, AI, Diplomacy, Research, and such. I agree, we really need to be able to zoom the sector map in and out, as well as having the game NOT display all of the star systems locations. They should be hidden from view until discovered much the way that BOTF did it. Excellent game though, complete dipartcher from SE IV in a good way. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I am mainly unhappy with the game because the planetary model is difficult to understand. In Master of Orion I & II, you could easily determine the production of a planet. In Master of Orion I, you had a factory level that determined the number of factories per colonist. Planets with a larger max number of colonists could have more factories and thus produce faster. In Gal Civ, you just have this nebulous "Planetary Quality" which somehow will affect both the max number of colonists and the max production. But it isn't really explained anywhere, and it isn't really all that intuitive.
As I am playing and reading on the Gal Civ forums, I have found a number of bugs in the game--some of which are game-stopping crash type bugs. If you are interested in trying out this game, I would advise waiting a few months until a patch or two has come out. BTW, it appears you can do some modding of the Gal Civ data files. It looks like both MOO3 and Gal Civ saw the success of SEIV and followed suit. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I have really enjoyed this game. No crashes and the beginner AI has beaten me three games in a row. However, in game 4 I have solved the money problem and have spread like the plague. Victory #1 perhaps? The interface has a few rough spots and there are a lot of things that are unexplained, but it is very intuitive and I have had little problem coping. There are also a few information and management features that should be added. Researching for cash is the key, along with not building things you really cannot afford yet.
I do regret the lack of tactical combat or custom ship design, but things seem to work out. R&D makes sure that stock BBs, CA, etc are not all created equal. [ March 31, 2003, 14:55: Message edited by: solops ] |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
There is a current patch out. It comes with the Bonus pack. Addresses a few of the crash issues.
The one thing that changes that I have not been able to figure out is the UI. It changes, and I for one have no clue as to why. Overall, the game is rather fun. I am in my fourth game now and for the most part was winning it. Now I am at war with the Yor and they are taking my worlds over covertly. Most frustrating. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
There are different UIs for evil ,neutral and good empires. If the UI has gone red its means you've been a bit nasty http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Askan |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I really like this game (GalCiv)....I have actually chatted with the Devs (even the main dev) for a bit yesterday afternoon....They are so far constantly updating it....posting on the forums about what ppl would like to see in the game. I have personally never seen this type of support for a pc game...ever.
My only "complaint" is the combat...i don't mind that combat is not tactical...that doesn't bother me. I just wish it would slow down just a bit so i can actually see how my ships are doing against the enemy ships. I did win my first game Last nite...an Alliance victory. I was only about 6 months away from a cultural victory...I was able to ally with the Altarians, then got dragged into several wars to protect my alliance. I played one game on Sub-Normal AI, and got totally bLasted in less than 2 hours. Today, going to start a game using SubNormal AI again (Last nite's was Beginner AI).... All in all, i really like this one. The Tech tree is good...the overall strategy is good....the diplomacy is good.... |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
Quote:
[ April 02, 2003, 23:42: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ] |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
GalCiv should arrive at my door in a few days.
Any game play advice? |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
I think the current record is set at 3 or 4 patches in 1 week. But that was a bit overkill IMO. It seems to have calmed down now...maybe 1 patch week/2 weeks. Stardock also reserved one full year to continue updating and expanding the game. So that's 1 year of garantueed updates, after that there may still be updates though. [ April 08, 2003, 21:02: Message edited by: Lemmy ] |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
Starbases good. In the first few turns set your research to 100%, and get to the Universal Translator (the yellow tech options), that will allow you to commiunicate with the civs you've encountered. Rush buy a colony ship if you see a good planet, but don't lease unless you have to! Starbase bonuses STACK! Sell your techs to the AI in exchange for x amount of cash/month, use that cash to increase your spending level. Starbases very good. Don't bother to build anything other then colony ships, constructors and some defense at the start. Don't build every social improvement available, the maintenance cost of the unnecessary projects will kill you in the long term. Starbases rock! [ April 08, 2003, 21:08: Message edited by: Lemmy ] |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
thanks Lemmy,
Also due to arrive at my door in a few days: Space Horse Interstellar Trader 2 Marriage Counselor Divorce Attorney ...In that order |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
ha ha war dad i am way ahead of you.
I started up a game.... but did not get a chance to read the manual ( which is a no no for me ). I could figure out alot in the hour i played it. I will be giving it a good whirl next time i am stuck at the hospital for a few hours... |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I was upset with MOO3 for many of the reasons listed and one HUGE fault, no pause button. Kinda stinks when you need to leave for a minute to Save and Load each time.
Needless to say I exchanged MOO3 for GalCiv and paid the extra $20 difference (only got $20 @ EB for MOO3). But I am happy with the exchange since I probably never had the time to play MOO3 as much as I anticipated since all of my SEIV pbw games dominate my time and enjoyment. MOO3 rating: 5.5 GalCiv rating: 8.0 SEIV rating: 9.0 |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Well it does look good for GalCiv. Most of the reviews for the game have been very favorable, inculding mine. (Ya like it really counts.)
Now if we could just take the GalCiv diplomacy / Political AI and run with it for SE V. Ohhh brother what a kick arse game that would be. (Just need to fix Intel now.) |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Was MOO3 designed to fail as a means to improve the sales of GalCiv and SE IV? It must have been. There can be no other logical explanation for it. Well there is always the concept that the people at QS bought into their own hype and used a color blind UI designer and the rejected parts of successful 4x games to make MOO3. (In other words, they simply did not give a rat’s arse about the game, and were there to collect a paycheck. Poor team work, poor production quality, just about poor everything. Now they have to go back and pick up the peaces and try to make MOO3 a game via patches and "Expansion Packs" that it should have been right out of the box. Does any of this sound familiar? Civ 3? Release a game that is unfinished then six months later sell the update.
I am thankful for people like Aaron and those at Stardock for being dedicated to their games and for getting it right the first time. Thank you guys. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I don't think the main problem with MOO3 was sell an unfinished game, think was a big design problem.
After all, I knew several people angry with SE4 because believed they purchased an unfinished game, and more people angry because were forced to purchase SE4Gold to get a few more features, but get the new patches. In my case I had not these problems, because always loved SE4, and for the same reason, had not problems to purchase SE4Gold (I have received a SE4Gold copy because I'm beta testar, but also purchased a new copy). At the end, to me was the game with best rate between cost/hours played(and modding!). |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
My money voted yes for GALCIV http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif , and no for MOO3. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I love SEIV, particularly the white-knuckle early stages when the AI empires try to take you out. However, if you get a leg up on the AI, the rest of the game (hours and hours) is mop up leading to victory.
There is much more ebb and flow with Gal Civ: you can win militarily, culturally, technologically, or economically. You can SEEM to be winning the combat but the AI is still taking planets through its cultural influence. Alliances form and break up. Minor civilizations arise and are conquered. Victory is rarely assured until the end. While similar, the two games are not really the same genre. SEIV is designed to be played for days or weeks, and contains incredible detail. GalCiv games are designed to be completed in an evening or two, and are definitely strategic in approach. The games complement one another more than compete, and there is no reason not to have both residing on your hard drives. MOO3 appears to be a different matter. I have yet to read a favorable professional review of the game, which motivated me to return the box unopened. Keep in mind that on the day the game was released, a beta tester and Infogrammes forum moderator initiated a thread entitled, "For all those feeling let down or disappointed..." with MOO3. If the "insiders" know there are real problems with the game, what are the rest of us to think? |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
Starbases good. In the first few turns set your research to 100%, and get to the Universal Translator (the yellow tech options), that will allow you to commiunicate with the civs you've encountered. ... Rush buy a colony ship if you see a good planet, but don't lease unless you have to! </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm kinda curious about this advice. When I play, I typically set my Military to 100% for the first several turns so that I can crank out Colony Ships as quickly as possible. Also, I would strongly recommend that you purchase your first two colony ships so that you will have THREE new colony ships built in 6-9 turns instead of just one. IIRC, each planet contributes at least 5 BC income which is exactly the amount of the 173 month Mitrosoft lease for a purchased colony ship. At the beginning of the game, there is a mad land rush to grab every >= 15 quality planet in sight. There is also a rush to grab the galactic resources. But I wouldn't build a constructor until I had colony ships being sent to every planet in sight. Also, you can use Constructors to build starbases to extend the range of your colony ships. I don't really see a pressing need to get Universal Translator until you have colonized every planet in sight. I think the most important techs to get are Industrial and then Medical and Basic Environmental. The Manufacturing Center is really helpful for your larger planets and perhaps all your planets with only 1 BC upkeep. The Basic Environmental gets you Soil Enhancement which improves the quality and thus your income on all your planets. If you are just starting out, I would press Control-N until you get a starting sector with a second planet in your home system and a second star system with two >=15 PQ planets in it. I would then colonize the same planet in your home system and purchase colony ships from both planets that will on the next turn give you a total of four planets. IMHO, I think it is a good idea to put your spending at 100% military and build colony ships on all four of those planets and send them out trying to colonize everything you can. The really nice benefit to having four planets in your home sector comes when you start building tons and tons of starbases in that home sector. Those planets are going to have the best production by virtue of a larger population, etc. When you start building multiple starbases, the production benefit will help all four planets. [ April 10, 2003, 13:14: Message edited by: raynor ] |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Raynor,
As I mess up in my first game, I have a better appreciation of your advice. I did not crank out colony ships at first. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif But... I found a war ship and protected three prize systems in one sector from intruding colony ships. So I am still in the game. Keeping the Morale up is a real problem. I loaded some excess population into a colony ship and then got rid of them. The result??? Their former relatives are happier. Go figure..., I will likely keep on wining elections if I keep on doing this. But... It really cuts into the tax revenue. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
The developers over at StarDock are trying to provide regular updates to the game. Using the StarDock Central program, they are distributing updates every couple of days. Recently, they added a really useful "feature" that assists with trading.
Unfortunately, this "feature" also results in a crash to desktop every turn it is used. (Adjusting slider for money/influence trades.) Also unfortunately, this "feature" that they added to the game is pretty much a necessity in order to compete with the supposedly non-cheating AI. (The human player must adjust the slider back and forth to find the optimal trade while the AI automatically knows exactly what to offer.) Once again, I repeat my warning to those of you thinking about trying out Gal Civ. I would wait two or three months while the game continues to be beta-tested by all of us who purchased it. Of course, I'm only saying that because the game has crashed 30 times in the Last hour. By tomorrow, they may already have a patch that will let me keep playing. |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
The game does crash when you try to use the slider and the target civ has less than 100 but this problem has a workaround and the game is far from unstable (as you portray it). |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Any game can be unstable under conditions it was not tested in. Just because it is perfectly stable for one user does not mean it will be stable on any other computer. It might be, but you can't say that it will be based off of that.
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
At lower levels of difficulty, the AI probably isn't trading technology for money. As a result, you can easily win at lower difficulty levels without using this feature. So, I guess you could say that at lower difficulty levels, the game is quite stable. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I just played a beginner game to try out tech trading. In a Sub-Normal game, I doubt I would be doing nearly as much tech trading. But in the Beginner game, it was becoming quite, quite tedious. Every turn, I would discover a new technology and go offer it for money to five major races and four minor ones. That was a heck of a lot of clicking. Don't even get me started on the amount of clicking you must do to send dozens of constructors around building and upgrading starbases every turn.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Galciv - cute, but boring
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Quote:
I put my Research to 100% because i buy my Colony ships. So i don't need the production. However on larger maps where you'll need more then 2 or 3 colony ships, setting Military production higher is a good thing. Quote:
[ April 13, 2003, 00:06: Message edited by: Lemmy ] |
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
I read that setting Military or Research, or Social to 100% is wasteful. There is a limit to how much you planet can spend, (about 60%???) after which any more is wasted.
|
Re: OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)
Raynor,
Don't you think you're being a tad misleading. Yes, 1.02.42 added a stack overflow problem with the trade screen that happens on *some* systems (I have yet to be able to reproduce it but we do have the crash logs). But you don't seem to be acknowledging that this problem came because we added the dynamic AI yay/nay status to that dialog Last week based on user requests. Your Posts seem to imply that out of the box that the game is some sort of beta. No one has to use 1.02.42. They could stick with 1.0 (the retail Version) or 1.01 (the bonus pak) where this probem doesn't occur. And we should have it fixed by tomorrow afternoon (1.02.43). Any user who downloads the weekly updates is more likely to run into some unforeseen problem than the user who waits for the stand alone patches that are released much less frequently but are more mature. |
| All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:52 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©1999 - 2025, Shrapnel Games, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.