Some issues and questions

from GalCiv3 Forums

Being new to GalCiv makes joining in on a beta probably not the best idea, but I've done it nonetheless. I'm quite happy about what I see (this is what I expected from the game), but I am getting lost on several things. I also have found some issues, which I'll put first.

1. In the Shield, Point Defence, Armour optimization tech, the techs which reduce the cost, actually increase it. At least, that's what it says in the "unlocks" section of the description. The text above it claims a reduction in cost, which is what I assume it will be. I'm not sure what the actual effect is because I haven't researched them.

2. Occasionally, when I have a unit join a fleet, the fleet disappears from the map. The units are gone. Shortly after that, the game freezes (Do you need logs? I'll look them up if it happens to me again. It happened some time ago and I didn't think of it at that moment).

3. In the tech tree, I can't see which tech will unlock what kind of ship. I don't know the icons of course, but I also think these icons I now see below the tech item, are a bit too small. The orange icon looks like a spaceship, but when I hover over it with the cursor, the additional information isn't really helping me. When I do the same with a tech that unlocks an improved structure, I can read it easily: The tech of the solar plant is followed by a hydrogen plant (I believe?), that made sense rather quickly, but it's not the case with the ships (where can I find Defender M1 -> M2 -> M3 below the techs?). Maybe it just isn't finished yet, or there some other reason, but it couldn't hurt to put it up here.

I'd like to see the icons to be a bit less minimalistic, or the techs to give more information without having to mouseover the icons below them. I'm very used to what it looks like in Civ5 - that would not really be necessary here, I'm not demanding it, but I'd like to see the information a bit more accessible than it is now.

Now for the questions: this is mostly gameplay related, going on the parts that are hardest for me while playing.

1. How fast is the research supposed to go, on average? I take anywhere between 7 and 10 turns for one tech. I'm still very busy with techs in the first era, but the bar in the lower end of the screen (the one that appears when you've researched a tech) is already filling up in the third era.

2. Related to my confusion with the icons, where are the medium-sized ships? My opponent is suddenly attacking me with fleets containing medium ships, they can tear an entire fleet of mine apart without too much trouble. I think I can manage to keep the upper hand, but that is mostly because I continue to destroy all shipyards near six of the enemy planets. Having a couple of medium sized ships myself wouldn't hurt. I made the same sudden progress when I figured out how to assemble a fleet.

3. In combat, does it matter where the weapons of my custom ships are? One custom ship is aligned a bit wrong: You're looking at it from the rear, when you select it in the shipyard, as opposed to every other ship in the game.

Thanks for the help

2,697 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

So let me see if I can help. There is a thread I posted titled How to improve your game.... (https://forums.galciv3.com/457039/page/1/#3488146) Take a look in there for planet optimization.

 

1) Research can be slow but again I would take some of your planets and specialize them according to their strengths. Planets with Research bonuses get all research facilities and focus the slider there. Same with production ones. Those 'Production' planets get starports.

 

2) Research ship sizes and look for ZERO GRAVITY CONSTRUCTION, this will unlock medium ships. Follow that path for larger ships!

 

3) An after combat log/report would help and I think we are going to get one in the future to help with who is attacking with what and when. This will help you optimize your ships against enemy fleets. When building look for the red which usually signals the 'rear' of the ship where I mount engines. 

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

3. In the tech tree, I can't see which tech will unlock what kind of ship. I don't know the icons of course, but I also think these icons I now see below the tech item, are a bit too small. The orange icon looks like a spaceship, but when I hover over it with the cursor, the additional information isn't really helping me. When I do the same with a tech that unlocks an improved structure, I can read it easily: The tech of the solar plant is followed by a hydrogen plant (I believe?), that made sense rather quickly, but it's not the case with the ships (where can I find Defender M1 -> M2 -> M3 below the techs?). Maybe it just isn't finished yet, or there some other reason, but it couldn't hurt to put it up here.
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There are no pre-built ships. (well the M1s are pre-built, but those get obsolete pretty quickly)

The game currently designs your ships. When you research a new tech, the ship designer it will redesign all ships that can benefit from those techs. This means that a M3 design for one game might be different in another. In one game, the M3 might have better lasers, while in another game the M3 might have better engines.

If you don't like it, you design your own ships. You can take a template ship and add modules to it. You can even design your own templates.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thanks for the answers. I had actually read about the reasons to specialize a planet before I posted :) still a useful reminder. It's a bit of a hassle changing my planets in to specialized ones, but I'll give it a go anyway.

There's another question I've got. When I upgrade a ship (for example from M2 to M3), it suddenly has a lower operational range. Do you get that too? It's a bit of a surprise and sometimes very annoying because I have to give up the pressure... A nice way of dealing with this, is to display information when hovering over an upgrade option with the cursor. So it would tell you how much the laser damage and shields would change (same for the other two types of course), as well as the change in range and moves. Then you can immediately determine if the upgrade is useful for you, or will only slow you down.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I find that annoying too. What probably happens is a design change had removed a range module. What probably happened was the ship designer considers range modules a low value part. It might have a minimum amount to have, but anything beyond that is supposed to fill empty space. Once it has something better to fill the space, it'll replace the filler.

It is a real pain. If you are fighting an enemy who you can barely reach, and then you lose more range on your latest ships, you might as well fall back. My recommendation is to research range and/or bigger ships, or design your own ships.