Old GalCiv Wolf Notes: Bugs, Feedback, Suggestions.

from GalCiv3 Forums

Hello everyone. I actually ignored Alpha stage because the game was so undeveloped, but in current state of beta that seems to be a way better game than GalCiv2 was.

Disclaimer: I clearly realize that not all things are easy/possible for the developers, and that some things have clearly been already stated and discussed; I just try to summarize what I found.

I guess I will make a small list of advantages and disadvantages in general before everything else.

So, the pros are:

1. Way better graphics. Especially the vids, now you want to see them and not ignore.

2. Sid Meier's style of colonies and shipyards management (well, addition of the shipyards themselves), removal of tax from empire government menu and that awful "industry occupancy rate" or whatever it was called, I don't remember (where you set the %, to which you use the capablities of labs and factories). As a result, a more interesting way of economy management via other methods.

3. Revision of resources management and the "relics" idea, making powerful bonuses harder to acquire.

Cons: 

The game is too much like GalCiv2. I understand that it is basically the same game etc., but the following things are there, and they are hardly reviewable. 

1. Ship Designer is beautiful, but makes no practical sense.

2. Trade. Just send the freighter and that's all? Trade licenses are just another name for the same, old, and boring trade routes?

 

So, the bugs, imperfections and incompletenesses:

1. No money is deducted from your account when you upgrade ships. That makes it very easy to cheat by designing the cheapest possible ship and make top-tier armadas in no time by freely upgrading them. I don't use this, but you really got to fix it guys.

2. Survey ships way of behaviour. Some anomalies are being ignored.

3. Era bar. I don't know whether this is a bug or no, but the actual fact that researching Disruptors (whatever the tech is named), which are basically rather early beam weapons, made me enter the Age of Ascension, makes no sense.

4. Allegiance and influence corellation and interconnection. I had a situation, after some galactic event, that like 10 planets joined me at once. It was a small map and virtually half of the galaxy.

5. Planet generation. Abundant means ABUNDANT. Not 1 planet per star, often non-colonizeable. Same applies to the amount and the location of stars. That's not the hardest thing to do, people, and you really gotta fix it as, possibly, a primary issue. :)

6.  No colony management screen! The governors/colony managers are yet to come, as I see, but we need that screen. That was the best way to get the job done in galciv2.

7. I still do not fully understand how exactly the resources are used, though, i guess they give some effect. However, it would be interesting to know how their amount is affecting what.

8. Ships inside the nebula. That has been reported many times and I don't think it is needed to elaborate more.

9. Lack of any predefined hotkeys or the possibility to assign your own.

10. Game crashes sometimes on larger maps.

11. There are issues with Government screen, the general adjustments are not always seen in the corresponding colony screen.

 

Suggestions and "want to have's":

1. As already said, the colony management screen, sortable through different columns.

2. The starbase management screen, since SB's play a significantly more important role in GalCiv3 than in previous versions. If possible, intergation with the colony management screen.

3. Reduce the black holes radius on small maps.

4. Approval/Tourism/Influence/Diplomatic Researches should be more interconnected and the scheme shall be more clear.

5. Fixes to Power screen. What do these numbers even mean? As far as I understood it, some part of the score is dedicated to military and some to economy. Could you make it more clear? 

6. Better autopathing for ships. You dont need to go through the entire giant nebula when you can ignore it and get to the relevant place faster.

7. Make something with trade. Add corporative licenses, unique goods or things like them. This is the matter where no visible changes were made compared to GalCiv2.

 

That is probably all for now. The post will be updated and reviewed as it goes.

Thanks,

Hummer

3,583 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Trade does need to significantly be touched on.  I've never liked the whole "the further the planet the better the income" mechanic.  As it always seemed to create very unnatural and unrealistic trade routes where these "trade worlds end up being every colony on the edges of the map.  There should be some sort of "network" between colony's.  Like making a trade chain which each link in the chain increases the overall income for each planet (link) in the chain, with the furthest planets from the trade routes end (the other races end) gets the highest bonus.  You could just make a direct link from the planet to their planet like always, but without linking this route through high-economy planets the income made between those two particular worlds is still good but not nearly as high as it would be.  Like each planet increases the trade multiplier a certain amount depending on its total income. (Worlds with lots of markets and high pop add to the multiplier a lot more than others) This would make engaging in trade with other civs both engaging and a lot more fun I think, and shouldn't be hard to code into the AI either.  


Youd first build a ship then have it great a new trade route by selecting where you wish the end of the trade route will be then more worlds as you approach the other civs planets (your trade tech level will determine how many links each ship can support.). Then you start linking their worlds going deeper into their civ as you go until you reach the end of your ships range or run out of links.  Basically you'll just be drawing lines through your planets.  


Trade tech could be split into two new branches.  One allowing you to create more trade routes, another allowing you to add more links.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting mbrash5, reply 1

Trade does need to significantly be touched on.  I've never liked the whole "the further the planet the better the income" mechanic.  As it always seemed to create very unnatural and unrealistic trade routes where these "trade worlds end up being every colony on the edges of the map.  There should be some sort of "network" between colony's.  Like making a trade chain which each link in the chain increases the overall income for each planet in the link, with the furthest planets from the trade routes end (the other races end) gets the highest bonus.  You could just make a direct link from the planet to their planet like always, but without linking this route through high-economy planets the income made between those two particular worlds is still good but not nearly as high as it would be.  This would make trade pretty fun I think, and shouldn't be hard to code into the AI either
End of mbrash5's quote

i think somethin along the lines of a pyramid scheme for trade each unique trade route directly connected to another trade route boosts trade by 10% each unique trade route connected through a second trade route adds 5% and every remaining unique trade route adds 1% 

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I agree needs to be redone. If you do what you are suggesting, and allow blockading. This should hamper this as far as stopping the chain after the planet that was blockaded from where the chain starts to where it ends on the blockaded planet. Basically you'd represent this by halving the bonus, because the buck stop's at the blockaded planet.

I do like to be able to customize ships. If it's not realistic how. Maybe instead of getting rid of the concept they will fix the problem instead.

As far as black holesare in real in relation in size to density they are smaller. The reason light can't escape is because of dense matter. As far/as two objects the same mass. One's normal ie star for example Lets say five solar mass. Because it is a star, and light escapes it is pretty big. If you get to close to the star you get sucked in unless a orbit is established. With a black hole this still applies. The minimum black hole size is five solar mass. I know I'm missing some concepts, so as to not be to complicated. This dark star is a lot smaller, because, in order for light not to escape the mass you needmore gravity per square some measurement. The gravity well is the same because of having the same mass. Producing the same gravity. Even though you have a small hhole. You still would get sucked in where a star of the same mass would suck you in. A black is a more dense dead star than a white dwarf or a neutron star.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I would like it if Pirates were treated almost as if they were a minor faction. In fact they would hamper and attack everything/everones ships and actually favor going after and raiding trade routes over attacking ships (which is historically what pirates did anyway).

 

Also it would be cool if they actually had a planet which was 'hidden' and was used as a base somewhere on the map. This would come with its own shipyard and perhaps some nice planetary bonuses for conquering it.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Larsenex, reply 4

I would like it if Pirates were treated almost as if they were a minor faction. In fact they would hamper and attack everything/everones ships and actually favor going after and raiding trade routes over attacking ships (which is historically what pirates did anyway).

 

Also it would be cool if they actually had a planet which was 'hidden' and was used as a base somewhere on the map. This would come with its own shipyard and perhaps some nice planetary bonuses for conquering it.
End of Larsenex's quote

how do you hide a planet ? I mean simply not having cultural borders would go a long way but after that ? 

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

In the next generation they cloaked a planet. Star wars his a science base in a black hole.  You could hide in a nebula.