My first input on these here forums.

from GalCiv3 Forums

Greetings all.

I started off sending a message to support and they said my machine would have problems. Nevertheless, I had some friends donate me some broken PC's and RAM and purchased the game from selling "gold" in a different game through the steam wallet. I was able to bump my system to 4GB and put in a 1 GB Radeon card. Prior (and it worked in alpha albeit poorly) I had 3GB Ram and an 8800 GTX card in my rig. It DID run. Just not very fast. I'm not immersed in financial wealth, so I had to make ends meet otherwise.

First off, I'm aware this is a beta. Not a finished product. I'm happy to wait to get all the issues sorted out. I just wanted to summarize what I see now as things that need major work.

1. I think the shipyard graphics are pretty mediocre. I hope this is just a place-holder for something better later.

2. I feel like the game pacing is a little too slow at this time in which we can't change game speed. Perhaps reducing build times a bit would make for more play-testing? Colony ships take longer to build then some of the medium size frigates, not sure why this would be the case.

3. I feel like the pacing results in a lot of clicking "Turn" and there not being much to do.

Wishlist:

1. I loved MOO II. Nothing more awesome than capturing ships with Assault Shuttles. We need to have some kind of assimilation or marine action that results in taking over enemy ships. Battle salvage would be excellent.

2. I'd really like to see Espionage as more than an afterthought as it was in GC II.

That's all for now, good luck and Happy Hunting!

 

 

4,251 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

1. I loved MOO II. Nothing more awesome than capturing ships with Assault Shuttles. We need to have some kind of assimilation or marine action that results in taking over enemy ships. Battle salvage would be excellent.

 

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Never played any of the Masters of Orion games, but the idea of space marines boarding other ships always sounded cool to me.  Even if they're not trying to capture a vessel, they could still deploy at strategic points on an enemy hull to destroy critical systems that might not be targetable by other weapons.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top


1. I think the shipyard graphics are pretty mediocre. I hope this is just a place-holder for something better later.

2. I feel like the game pacing is a little too slow at this time in which we can't change game speed. Perhaps reducing build times a bit would make for more play-testing? Colony ships take longer to build then some of the medium size frigates, not sure why this would be the case.

3. I feel like the pacing results in a lot of clicking "Turn" and there not being much to do.

Wishlist:

1. I loved MOO II. Nothing more awesome than capturing ships with Assault Shuttles. We need to have some kind of assimilation or marine action that results in taking over enemy ships. Battle salvage would be excellent.

2. I'd really like to see Espionage as more than an afterthought as it was in GC II.
End of quote

 

on (1) how do you imaginge the shipyard looking what would you suggest? Genuine question it looks ok.

on (2/3) I agree there is a lot on next turn at the moment and pacing particularly in the early game is a little slow, expect this to change and become or tweakable during the bet.

I enjoyed Moo2 as well though I don't think GC3 is aiming to be exactly the same I think Assult Shuttles and various other weapons that could allow capture of enemy ships should be considered.

 

 

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I've never played any of the MoOs.  I have played Malfador Machinations' Space Empires III, IV, and V.  All 3 involve ship design with components, and tactical ship combat, where ship damage is in terms of components knocked out.

All SE versions have Boarding Parties as one of the components you can research (and Security Stations as the anti-boarding defense, but I always considered that to be wasted space -- I prefer to defend against boarders by just winning the space fight).  Boarding "uses up" the component (destroys it, same as damage, which is repaired normally).  Only shieldless ships can be boarded (so you must lurk at max gun range and beat their shields down, then sprint past their guns).  Hence, SE-style boarding basically requires tactical ship combat, and isn't compatible with GC-style ship combat.

The primary benefits of shippery are:

  1. Tech stealing.  Your shipyard components can analyze a ship for any techs you don't already have (which eats the ship).  In SE{3,4}, this gave 50% of the research cost for that tech level (so basically, you must steal 2 ships with that part).  In SE5, it gives 100% of the research cost, and you get the tech right away.
  2. Colony nova.  SE had 3 planet types (rock, ice, gas), each of which is a separate colonization tech.  (Atmosphere is not an issue; you can colonize the wrong atmosphere, you just get a dome that cuts your colony size to 1/5 normal.)  Soon after your boarders penetrate into enemy systems, you steal one of each colonizer type you didn't start with, steal those techs, and your # of colonizable planets triples.  That gets ... craaaazy.
  3. Upkeep war.  In SE3, I preferred to cripple huge fleets of enemy ships, but leave their hulks motionless all over the frontier systems.  The AIs must continue to pay upkeep on them.  Later, I send dung beetle ships (a boarder-shipyard, which can capture and scrap for $) to clear lanes to the warp points, and gradually cleanse all systems in contention.  (This actually doesn't turn a profit, darn -- a shipyard ship is so huge that its own upkeep is already equal to the salvage value of a light cruiser, so it basically has to salvage one per turn(!) just to break even.)

You could probably make a strong case that #1 and #2 are ba-roken, and shouldn't be in a game anyways :inlove: But that's what made it fun!!  It really wouldn't work in a GalCivk setting ...

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top




2. I'd really like to see Espionage as more than an afterthought as it was in GC II.

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Agreed, and in fact - the powers that be agree as well...

It was announced that Espionage would be done as a separate expansion/DLC (it wasn't clear exactly which).  So the good news is that it'll get a lot of love, while the bad news being that it won't ship in its full glory in the initial game release ...

 

A kick-ass espionage system is something that I'm looking forward to as well as it's a pretty unique opportunity to really bring a lot of new angles and strategy to the game.

 

cheers,

 

-tid242

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I actually like the idea of capturing ships.  I think the developers mentioned something about a chance to capture ships and maybe acquire tech if you win a battle, once the full combat mechanic is in.  I agree that both features (capture and tech advances) should be part of the combat system.