Beta 1- fun factor

I would never leave planetary improvement selection to the AI, it still puts stuff inappropriately on the AI controlled planets, which you find out when you conquer them.  I do not expect this to improve even when Frogboy tackles the AI come October.   It seems to me that the Adjacency Bonuses are just too randomly placed for anyone let alone the AI to take full advantage; for example, you frequently see two [or more] adjacent Hexes with different and opposing bonuses so that gives you a dilemma of choice over which improvement to place and where.

Before version 0.40, Approval was easier and improvement Building costs were lower, which I liked.  However the current mess is an experiment in Balancing.

Credits are not worthless, if you don't have enough then you cannot build new starbases, but no problems with upgrading the ones you've already got.  and for the record, version 0.40 does enable you to specialize your starbase with the first Constructor you place on the same tile, but you have to double click on the stabase On The Same Turn to select the Starbase Speciality improvement.  And you can upgrade your stabases with all the weapons and defence technologies you have researched even when it's just an economic one, so the military is not just reserved for a military starbase.

My biggest gripe, at the moment, is not being able to form fleets, which is perhaps my ignorance.

I am able to form fleets. Its a function of logistics. Research down the logistics paths a bit and  you can marry up several medium ships and a transport for invasion fun!

I first and foremost hardly disagree to the OP's point 1 and 3.

I'm not against Governors for People who wants them, but detail governing the planets is a big part of the fun, strategy and gameplay for me.

When it comes to production of ships/buildings it's important that ships/buildings take their time to build, both to make production really valuable in itself, and to make preapearing for war an important factor. There is alot of more arguments I' love to Write about here too, like Research and Production choices in combination with eachother, and their huge strategical impact in a GalCiv game, but have no time to cover that huge subject here now. Gal Civ is no Total War game where you can get what you need in no time. GalCiv should reward long term strategical planning, and that is what makes this game stand out in all its glory.

Researching more projects at the same time? What good would that do? The smart player would rather choose to finish one Project faster then 2 Projects late in every situation, always. This would only mess up the flow of the game, complicate planning with no benefits to gameplay or strategical hard choices what so ever.

Schaefespeare: 

About the credits are worthless thing; if starbases are the only use for credits then I'd say that's fairly useless.  We're talking about money here... surely money is more useful than just basic planning (pay your maintenance) and building some starbases, which aren't prohibitively expensive.  As you mentioned there are plenty of upgrades for each starbase, and if someone can make that many constructors they probably have the cash to back it up.  Maybe I'll be forced to eat my words after a few more games, but currently I haven't found myself wanting for credits at all. 

If the AI truly is impossible to improve I wouldn't be too worried about that.  So far as I can tell it's more important to try and get clusters of improvements together (unless special tiles are changed), which presumably is easier for the AI to prioritise.  Either way I'd be okay with it being less effective than choosing to micromanage everything.

NorsemanViking:

"I first and foremost heartily disagree to the OP's point 1 and 3." - most of your post seemed to disagree, or am I missing something? 

For the first part, I think you'll change your tune if you try and play something like an "immense" map with 50+ planets to deal with every turn.  I like to manage a few planets, but when the majority of a turn is flicking through colonies and building things (god help you when a new TF is unlocked) I don't find it fun or strategic.  This was one of my pet peeves in galciv 2, because the larger maps allowed for more depth, but were needlessly tedious.  We both seem to agree there's a need for optional automation so there's not much else to be said, I just think that at some point (again, maybe on a huge map) the appeal of all that micromanagement will lose its luster

I didn't say things should be easier to produce, although maybe I should have worded it better.  I meant that if something in a build or research queue finishes, any left over resources should be put into completing the next job.  If a planet is tied up for 20 turns building 20 upgrades it *could* finish in 1 turn, I wouldn't say that's strategic depth... at best a crude way to balance higher quality planets (which are rare anyway), at worst it's just more micromanagement.

Parallel research on different tech trees makes more sense (realistic viewpoint) and potentially allows for more depth, but is harder to implement properly and hence I wasn't advocating for it (although I'd still take it over the current system where a huge chunk of my research power can be wasted).

I suspect that Credits will be more useful when the Diplomacy mechanics are implemented, so that you can buy influence and/or research from the other races including minor ones.  And don't forget that you may also have to pay "Danegeld" to the Drengin or Yar when you're not ready to go to war yet.

Remember it's only Bet1.

B-t-w, thanks for the tip Lars.

If you look to the right of your Govern Planet screen you'll notice a window that says "Planetary Governors" with new, delete, and use buttons below. These are "coming soon," and I'm pretty sure they'll be what you are after.

They will be more useful when you can trade them for stuff from other civs; but right now, instant production of improvements and ships is far from worthless. I saved up 50k, then spent 5 turns buying the first thing in my queue on every one of my planets.

Useful tricks to do with credits is rush buying and upgrading ships.

Some people might argue against upgrading ships, but I find it useful. It takes time to build new ships, it takes time to build enough to form a fleet, and it takes time to move them into position. With upgrading, you already have the ships, fleets, and positions, so it only cost credits to make the change. It is a bit pricy and may take a few turns to complete, but I know how to use it.

Rush buying is useful because it can get a building or ship built now, and it even works on worlds with poor production. In a way, credits become another form of production. A production that is produced on other worlds, is stored until later, and be used on worlds different than the one that it was produced on. The benefits of rush buying a galactic achievement (only 1 per galaxy) before someone else does can be priceless.

Hello All,

On the credits point, in my second game I had a conquest victory but was 10000 credits in the hole (before I figured out the economic system). I also didn't use star bases at all for that game, so for now he has a point. Creidts can be used, but they do not play a pivotal role in this game yet.

As for fleets, when you have fully researched logistics you can pair up 6 large hulls, or 8 transports, so logistics are definitely important for fleet production. 

Regards,

sonoyuu