Gaunathor

Join Date 04/2006

+170

Yet another first impressions post

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I've only played about five hours by now and, so far, I'm pretty impressed. The Alpha is much better than I expected. It's obvious, that there is still a lot of work to be done, but the start is already very promising.

During the five hours I had one CTD. According to the debug.err a crash report was send to Steam, but I can upload the crash.dmp, should it be needed.

Okay, here are some thoughts about the game:

1. Options:

Overall, I'm really happy so see this menu. As far as I know, it's the first time, that you can change hotkeys in a Stardock-game.

2. Choose Civilizations:

3. Colony Management:

E. The buildtime of improvements and ships isn't updating immediately when I'm adjusting the Total Manufacturing value.

4. Starbases:

B. When a constructor reaches the starbase, I'm not getting a prompt to add a new module (if I have one available). Due to this, I have lost several turns, because I didn't notice that the constructor had arrived.

5. Main map:

C. (Picture removed, because the Shielded Planet bonus got fixed in 0.0.2.0)

7. Minimap

6. Tech Tree:

The same is happening with several other techs too.

F. (Picture removed, because the tooltip for Tech Specializations got fixed in 0.0.2.0)

That's it so far. I'm going to update this list, if I find anything that hasn't been reported yet by others.

The biggest item on my wishlist at the moment is an End Turn Summary, like the GNN in the previous games. Primarily because I have far too often missed that my ships have been constructed.

Edit: Added the zip-file with the crash.dmp as external link, just in case.

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I've also noticed the tooltip above planets shows a different population than the list on the right side of the screen. I tried to post an image but for some reason it won't upload. I think the list on the right is wrong, since it shows a lower population on new colonies than the colony ship brought there in the first place.

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Gaunathor

Join Date 04/2006

+170

Quoting Suomi Sotilashenkilo,

reply 1

I've also noticed the tooltip above planets shows a different population than the list on the right side of the screen.

The Planet List (below the minimap) shows, from left to right, the values for wealth, manufacturing, and research. Manufacturing doesn't have an icon, while research uses the icon for population for some reason. Neither manufacturing, nor research, has a tooltip, while wealth does have one.

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Hahaha, #6b Hardened Armor, "If six inches is good, twelve is obviously better. These things take a real pounding, you know."

Nothing like sci-fi intergalactic juvenile sexual innuendos to make GalCiv3 my soon to be favorite game.

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ScrivenerOfLight

Join Date 02/2007

+34

I've noticed what you show in 5 D as well (main map shows both tactical icons and 3D visuals). I don't think it is a bug, but a slightly confusing feature related to camera tilt and distance. If you tilt the camera to a shallow angle, you'll notice the nearer object will likely be 3D while the further ones will remain icons.

The only way I've found to keep them either all icons or all 3D is to have the camera at a straight up-and-down view.

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Gaunathor

Join Date 04/2006

+170

You're right, that could be it. I haven't noticed this behaviour when I set the camera to top-down view.

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Gaunathor

Join Date 04/2006

+170

2. Having to manually upgrade all improvements individually on all my colonies is quite the chore.

6. The Govern screen is currently the only place to see how much total research you are producing. I'd really like to see this value in the tech tree too.

7. I'd also like to see how much research points each tech costs. This would make it easier for me to determine why a certain tech takes so long to research (either because it is very expensive, or because my research output is too low).

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This seems like a good spot for my first impressions. I got about 4 hours in today on a small map just to see how it would flow. No issues with the initial setup menus. I'm very pleased with how everything is looking. I need to play a little more to figure out the economy, but after reviewing the econ 101 post, I think it makes more sense now that I've seen it in action.

The most noticeable things I think still need to be tweaked are:

- turn counter tool tip doesn't always update on the research from the main screen. I was at 2 for 3 turns, then no research. I would like a pop-up when you finish new research so you don't waste a turn with nothing being researched. However, I did notice that after a few turns instead of the idle ship or turn button, I had the research which took me to that screen.

- turn counter doesn't update as I adjust the econ wheel for the planet. It adjusts the output values for wealth, research, and production, but the ETA for anything in the que doesn't change until you leave the menu and come back to it or add/remove something.

- after space combat no summary or shots fired, damage inflicted/taken

- in survey mode, my survey ship would go outside its range limit to get to an anomoly, however, once you take it out of survey mode you can only go back to your space

- research tool tips. there are plenty of comments about that already, so i won't go anymore

More to follow after my next play through.

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Gaunathor

Join Date 04/2006

+170

Completely forgot that one:

Some more:

2. (Picture removed, because the Colonial Bank is limited to one-per-planet now, 0.0.2.0)

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great feedback always..

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Gaunathor

Join Date 04/2006

+170

1. The description of the Military Academy mentions research, but the building doesn't provide any bonuses in that regard. The Planetary Defense System, on the other hand, does provide a big boost to research, even though its description doesn't mention it. Is it possible, that the stats of those two building have been accidentally swapped?

2. Savegames are currently sorted alphabetically. Please sort them by their creation date instead, or at least give me the option. I already loaded the wrong the game by accident, because I'm used to have the latest save on top.

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Fate

Join Date 05/2006

Guanthor I believe that the Colonial Bank isn't actually an upgrade to the Trade Centre. Based on the bonus' it applies to surrounding buildings I think it is like the Research Coordinator and Fusion Power Plant type buildings and is the economic support building.

Fate,

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Gaunathor

Join Date 04/2006

+170

I thought so too at first, but you can build the Colonial Bank as often as you want (or have tiles for it). So it is either missing the upgrade-line, or the one-per-planet limitation.

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