Free-form vs Hardpoint Ship Components

from GalCiv3 Forums

Yo.

 

Ever hear of a game called Spore? Well, hopefully not since it's a nut-crushingly shallow excuse for a game, but it did many things right. The thing it did best was the creature and vehicle creator, which if you played it, you know how flexible it was:

 

And so on in similar fashion. Speaking as a veteran player of Spore, there are some freakin' crazy designs that make these look tame in comparison (also, SPAAAAAACCCCEEEE DIIIIIICCCCCCKKKKKSSSS):

The thing to take from this is that there's a ton of possibilities in Spore for designing crazy and strange things, with no real limit. The reason for this is how the creator operates; there are no "hardpoints" for vehicles or creatures where you can attach parts, you can put anything anywhere (anywhere) because there are no limitations. 

Contrast this with Galactic Civilizations 2:

Here, there are limitations in the form of hardpoints; you have the location you can place things on defined for you beforehand. While you can still build some ridiculous stuff, the game is more limited than Spore.

For the point of this thread; it would be cool if Galactic Civilizations 3 had a free-form editor in the stead of the current hardpoint system. Granted, it's probably too late to implement if it's not already, but yeah, it would be cool if it were possibly in an expansion.

What do you think? Keep the current system, or strip it and replace it with Spore's system?

18,987 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I personally prefer hard points as it's easier to lock things down evenly throughout

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Lets see their new editor they designed for GalCivIII first, before condemning it to a life inside the nearest super-nova.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It would be cool. I'd imagine ots also harder to build. Hopefully they don't do what Spore did and spend the entire budget on the editor, leaving only a shallow game surrounding it. 

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Tridus, reply 3

It would be cool. I'd imagine ots also harder to build. Hopefully they don't do what Spore did and spend the entire budget on the editor, leaving only a shallow game surrounding it. 
End of Tridus's quote

 

Look at you, the big comedian.

 

lol

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Well the latest news concerning the Yor ships doesn't allow for the free form kind of ship building. I'd assume that they want to keep consistent 'themes' across races which is why a total free form kind of editor isn't available. The game design isn't about total free form design decisions like in Spore so it makes sense they'd be limiting you.

It's also a bit of a double edged sword. Yes you have freedom but even sometimes people need limitations. ANd also total free form generally leads to not just well penis shaped ships (which I would not be very eager to be fighting in multiplayer), but does tend to actually limit the way the editors can behave (which is really counter intuitive)