[Idea] Scale Slider

from GalCiv3 Forums

I know you can mess around with all the different settings (making everything more rare and spread out) to give the impression of a more expansive universe.  But, I think it would be cool to have a "Scale" slider at the beginning of the game.  This slider would automatically adjust all the other settings to make the universe appear more/less expansive.  One of the key things I would like this slider to do, which cannot simply be done by messing around with the other settings, is to make the solar systems more realistic and interesting when the expansiveness is set to high.  Basically this would make each tile represent less space, so that the map in general is more zoomed in (or zoomed out if you prefer).  I personally like playing on maps where its difficult to get to another star, but each solar system has a lot of planets and things to do.  I envision this setting designating say 5-10 hexes around a star as its "solar system" instead of the current 2-4 hexes.  This would cause more interesting placement of rocky planets, asteroids & gas giants.  And even possibly enable them to orbit!  This would also increase the territorial-ness of space warfare.  You would defend an entire system vigorously, or else your enemy would gain a valuable foot hold.  I know this is already a part of the strategy, but I believe it would be enhanced by the option to increase the scale.

 

Alternatively, a specific setting that adjusts the size of each solar system would also do the trick!

 

Thoughts, Concerns, Questions?

 

8,200 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

What it sounds like here is something that a custom map maker can create for you. They did mention that they are going to implement a custom map maker.

The idea of orbiting the planets has been addressed in a dev stream and they mentioned several difficulties with doing orbits in this game design. I forget which stream, otherwise I would post the link here.

Overall, the general idea you are asking for is the option to have less solar systems and make the current ones in game larger. So instead of having 2 solar systems near each other with 5 planets, have 1 solar system with 5 planets. I'm not seeing a great reason for the trade off beyond trying to make the game look more realistic.

Would this also be possible by setting star frequency lower and increase planet frequency... increase the number of planets around a smaller range of stars?

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting parrottmath, reply 1

Would this also be possible by setting star frequency lower and increase planet frequency... increase the number of planets around a smaller range of stars?
End of parrottmath's quote

 

That is how I normally set up my maps.  Basically, I would like to see the ability to have larger more interesting solar systems.  As I said, a solar system size option would do the trick, but the idea of a scale slider is preferable in my mind for realism purposes.

 

I love the idea of having a large, interesting solar system, with all sorts of goodies and things to explore... and the closest star is un-reachable without researching extended life support.  This would create interesting dynamics as you could actually fight a territory war within a single system!  Imagine choke points created by asteroids and nebulas.  With large colonizable moons (mechanically equivalent to small planets) "orbiting" (placed around) the gas giants (I know this is discussed in other threads) but it is only really implementable if the solar systems are made larger.  A scale slider would adjust all relevant settings without having to tweak everything individually.

Either way, this is possibly with a custom map.  And it is possible to change current settings to be close to what I am saying.  I just wanna see the option for larger solar systems is all ;-)

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

They talked about this in the dev stream they did today. So they might grant your wish when they play around with this stuff.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I love the idea however the big problem i have with it is size 

what i mean is that as for size : star= planet = ship = asteroid= fleet etc. they are all the same size as far as the game is concerned 1 hex . Without addressing this first i think making realistic solar systems would be difficult so heres what i would suggest and any ui guys are proboly going to have nightmares from this 

the area around a star uses a different sized grid then the remaining map so the 2-4 tiles around a star get divedid into 10 tiles each. So each star controlls an area of 20-40 tiles which would be = to 2-4 tiles iN the main map.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

An interesting idea, though probably not doable in galciv3.  I would support some sort of zoom-in-to-system UI, but that would be a major departure from part of what makes galciv classically galciv.