[Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

http://www.galciv.com/

It seems a good challenger for SE IV, isn't it ?

Re: [Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

Gal Civ has no multiplayer

Re: [Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

And you can only place as one race: Humans.

And I hear there's no tactical combat to speak of...

Re: [Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

Being Human only are 1's and 0's and a couple of bitmaps. Its meaningless since you can still customise the Human race.
As for multiplayer, well this is bad if you only play multiplayer but this is good if you most often player single player.
As for tactical combat...well the whole map IS tactical combat, sorta like the Civ games.

I've got the Beta of GalCiv and I admit I quite like it. But then again I play Civ 3 alot mainly because the AI is somewhat challenging. It almost seems out of place nowdays that you can play a strategy game and lose (well at least get pounded enough to give up).

Askan

Re: [Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

The AI in Civ 3 is only challenging because it cheats horrendously. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I don't think GalCiv has anything on SE4. It might still be a good game, but it will definitely not top (or equal) SE4.

Re: [Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Your a legend of SE4, I've burnt many a player in my prime, but neither of us can seriously argue that in solo play SE4 is nothing but a "when I choose to win" sorta game. At least in Civ the AI chooses to pound me every now and then.

I got the GalCiv beta and I admit that I quite like it. I've been playing SE4 for almost 2 years and I haven't played solo since my first game or two, but I'm quite sure that like Civ I will give GalCiv a go every now and then.

Askan

Re: [Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Your a legend of SE4, I've burnt many a player in my prime, but neither of us can seriously argue that in solo play SE4 is nothing but a "when I choose to win" sorta game. At least in Civ the AI chooses to pound me every now and then.

I got the GalCiv beta and I admit that I quite like it. I've been playing SE4 for almost 2 years and I haven't played solo since my first game or two, but I'm quite sure that like Civ I will give GalCiv a go every now and then.

Askan</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Askan, if the Last time you played SEIV solo two years ago, you have no rights to comment about the current state of SEIV AI ! Honestly.

Re: [Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

It is said that GalCiv makes use of the OS multi-threaded mechanism, which means unlike most turn based stragety games, GalCiv AI calculates when the player is thinking. There was a feature of 4x space strategy by Gamespot some time ago, in which the first GalCiv game on OS/2 was stated as the game with the strongest AI. I hope this will be the same in the upcoming Windows sequel.

Re: [Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

IMHO, it just isn't fair to compare the AI in SEIV to that in Gal Civ. In SEIV, an adaptive AI would have to change its ship designs based on mines, satellites, fighters, drones, long range weapons, short range weapons, armor bypassing weapons, shield bypassing weapons, etc. But Gal Civ just has attack strength and defense strength. The difference, in terms of AI complexity, in my opinion, is even greater than that between chess and checkers.

Fortunately, I think Gal Civ may have a few "Civ-like" features that will make up for the extremely simple ship combat. I think the AI may have a better implementation of diplomacy and trade.

Re: [Other games] Galactic civilizations released March 26th.
 

Well of course if you make the game feature-barren you can have a strong AI. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif That is what allows very difficult chess programs to be written. But, it is variety and complexity that make 4X games great, not simplicity.