OT: Galatcic Civilizations (GalCiv)

[jpowell]

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?

[Lemmy]

GalCiv games are designed to be completed in an evening or two,

Not really, on tiny to medium maps, yes. But on the biggest map it can take weeks just like an SE4 game.

[raynor]

Originally posted by Lemmy:

quote:

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Originally posted by Wardad:
GalCiv should arrive at my door in a few days.
Any game play advice?

Start on a small or tiny map.
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!

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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 ]

[Wardad]

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.
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.

[raynor]

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.

[SlapBone]

Originally posted by raynor:


(The human player must adjust the slider back and forth to find the optimal trade while the AI automatically knows exactly what to offer.)

The AI doesn't automatically know what to offer me

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).

[Fyron]

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.