Beta 5.2 Opt-in Initial Feedback (**Update in Reply #6**)

from GalCiv3 Forums

Okay.  Had my first crash to desktop on turn 116 (trouble ticket submitted) so seemed like a good point to make some comments.

Playing as Terrans on an insane map with all opponents, all minors, and two custom races.  All planet settings on abundant and everything else on common.  Difficulty set to Challenging.

1) AI is MUCH improved.  How do I know?  I'm getting my butt kicked.

  • I have 38 ships and 47 colonies.  My tech is just a little behind the other players and I conquered 1 minor race.
  • The Iconians have 70 ships and 95 colonies.
  • The Yor have 43 ships and 71 colonies.
  • The Drengin have 374 ships (half and half warships and colony ships) and 206 colonies!  Holy sheets, Batman!  The Drengin have declared war on me and their colonies are closing in on my border.  Be interesting to see if I can hold out.  BTW, how are they holding up their approval with so many colonies?
  • Haven't met any other majors yet.

I got so used to the dumber AI in previous builds that I took it waaaay to slow this time.  I am pumping out colony ships and warships like there's no tomorrow and I'm the only player (that I've met) with extreme world colonization, so that should even things a bit if I can survive the Drengin.

The malevolent perk where the player gets an overload class ship on every colony may be a bit overpowered.  I'm also trying to figure out how the Drengin got 206 colonies already.  That puts a whole new meaning to colony rush.

2) The barren world colonization bug is fixed.  Thank you.

3) Getting scratchy sound (popping noises) during some transitions (like opening up the diplomacy screen).

4) The empty resource tile bug I reported in 5.1 is still there.

5) Diplomacy is much harder.  I find the AI less willing to trade tech than in the past, even after I researched diplomacy techs.  Minor races are still willing to trade starbases.

6) AI is still colonizing in my territory resulting in five converted worlds so far for me.  Not that I mind so much them giving me free worlds without the need for colony ships, but doesn't seem the wisest thing to do.  Only a malevolent race with the ideology perk that prevents flipping should do this as a regular strategy.

7) I still can't tell if morale relics are affecting planetary approval.  No indication on Planet UI Approval popup.

8) I can see stars change color on the minimap even though I haven't revealed them on the main map.  I was able to locate most of the other major players that way (i.e. Drengin - red stars, Yor - purple stars, etc.)

Well, I'm going back to see how long I can survive.  Write more later.  (206 colonies?  Mommy!)

10,270 views 19 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top


2) The barren world colonization bug is fixed. Thank you.
End of quote

Excellent!


7) I still can't tell if morale relics are affecting planetary approval. No indication on Planet UI Approval popup.
End of quote

Right, I have one that says it's giving me 10% approval, but it doesn't show up in any of the approval tooltips of any of my planets.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

At turn 125:

Race          Colonies          Ships         Score       Ideology

Drengin          314               356           2,385      Malevolent

Macians         106               263              815      Malevolent

Iconians         106                 97              680      Benevolent

Iridium             75                293              628      Pragmatic

Terrans (Me)   70                  51              544      Benevolent

Yor                  82                  54              469      Malevolent

(The Macians are a custom major race)

Hey, I'm not last!

Diplomacy glitch (I was in the diplomacy screen and concluded an exploration treaty with the Iconians, which led to discovering the Iridium and the glitch below:


 

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hamilmac out of curiosity, what are your system specifications..?  I'm an IT guy, a business partner, a college student, a beta tester and a longtime GalCiv lover whom never has enough time to test or play like I'd like haha

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Approval Relics are working, after a fashion.  Once again in 5.2, I saw my approval jump up after I hooked up my first Approval Relic.

HOWEVER the xml for Approval Relics is still saying "Approval" instead of "Goods & Services" (or whatever the exact language is).  Whether this is causing issues in implementation, I have no idea.  But it wouldn't surprise me if it is a bit buggy because of it.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting ofRealmTruFaith, reply 3

Hamilmac out of curiosity, what are your system specifications..? I'm an IT guy, a business partner, a college student, a beta tester and a longtime GalCiv lover whom never has enough time to test or play like I'd like haha
End of ofRealmTruFaith's quote

  • Alienware X51 R2
  • i7-4770 CPU 3.4GHz
  • 16 GB Ram
  • Windows 7
  • GeForce 760 graphics card, 1.5 GB GDDR 5

So, a good system but not a high-end gaming system.

As for work, I took this last week off to give myself a "spring break" per say.  Back to the grind on Monday, which doesn't give me much time for gaming.

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The game crashed on Turn 144, so seemed a good time for an update.  Game has crashed 4 times so far (trouble tickets submitted).

I have no idea how the Drengin are able to have so many colonies, way more than anyone else.  I made a comeback by spamming colony ships and making a beeline for the malevolent ideology that gives an overload ship on every planet.

Race          Colonies          Ships         Score       Ideology

Drengin          396               518           4,140      Malevolent

Terrans (Me)  178               264           2,182      Benevolent (with 7 malevolent ideology perks)

Macians         136               220              975      Malevolent

Iconians         115               166              818      Benevolent

Iridium             80                292              651      Pragmatic

Snathi Major   78                  60              614       Pragmatic

Thalan            91                 117             610       Pragmatic

Yor                  82                  42              522      Malevolent

Krynn              53                106              419      Benevolent

Altarian           62                  19              337      Benevolent

Okay, so the first question is: Why do the Drengin have so many colonies?  At 178 colonies, my approval is down to 24%, so I don't know how they're managing it.

Also, can the AI select perks from a different ideology?  I certainly use all three, with Benevolent and Malevolent being my favorite combination.

And, the colony rush from GC 2 is back.  I personally don't like the mad dash.  I prefer the Civilization model where happiness, economics, and barbarians act to slow empire expansion.  Maybe that's just me.

Some requests:

1) Please change the button on the bottom left to bring up the Tech Tree.  That way, those of us who prefer the Tech Tree can skip the other screen.

2) If possible, please make every clickable item larger in the UI (especially the scroll bar) at 1920x1080.  I frequently have trouble grabbing the scroll bar (like when I want to add a shipyard to the build queue). 

3) If I accidently click "Cancel" on the colony ship pop up asking for population, how can I find that ship again?  It was really hard to locate it when I have over a hundred colonies and lots of colony ships on the map.

4) Minor races really don't seem to have a good role in the game.  City States in Civilization 5: Age of Kings are fully realized elements in that game.  Diplomacy matters.  They provide resources and are powerful enough to help as allies in wars and can even take enemy cities.  GC 3 minors need more to really bring them to life.

Bugs:

1) When loading a saved game, the main screen flickers (really noticeable with the stars, asteroid fields, and Thulium).  I also saw flickering in the ship Designer in the menu at the top right,  Finally, had a similar bug after clicking end turn and having some idle ships that needed moving.  The end turn button would actually cycle through all the possible messages really fast before settling on Idle Ship.

2) On the Diplomacy UI, when making a trade that requires money, the game would select an amount but the race wouldn't accept it.  When I click on the money again, a larger amount appears, but the race still won't accept it.  This can go on up to a dozen times.  This may be a "feature" but I find it really annoying and a waste of time.

3) On an insane map, I think trade resources are too numerous.  They can really shift the balance of the game when you get 2-3 dozen of them each through colonization and trade with other players.  Toward end game, this would become ridiculous.

4) The battle viewer action is not consistent with the results.  I had ships armed with missiles and thus had no reason for them to close on a shipyard.  The battle viewer showed them closing and getting hit by beam and kinetic weapons.  When the battle was over, my ships had taken no damage.

5) Approval is still a mystery to me.  Morale relics are still not showing up as bonuses on the planet UI, but they do seem to have some affect.

All that said, the new AI is proving to be a lot of fun.

Thanks!

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Hamilmac, reply 6


Okay, so the first question is: Why do the Drengin have so many colonies?  At 178 colonies, my approval is down to 24%, so I don't know how they're managing it.

And, the colony rush from GC 2 is back.  I personally don't like the mad dash.  I prefer the Civilization model where happiness, economics, and barbarians act to slow empire expansion.  Maybe that's just me.


3) If I accidently click "Cancel" on the colony ship pop up asking for population, how can I find that ship again?  It was really hard to locate it when I have over a hundred colonies and lots of colony ships on the map.

4) Minor races really don't seem to have a good role in the game.  City States in Civilization 5: Age of Kings are fully realized elements in that game.  Diplomacy matters.  They provide resources and are powerful enough to help as allies in wars and can even take enemy cities.  GC 3 minors need more to really bring them to life.

Bugs:

2) On the Diplomacy UI, when making a trade that requires money, the game would select an amount but the race wouldn't accept it.  When I click on the money again, a larger amount appears, but the race still won't accept it.  This can go on up to a dozen times.  This may be a "feature" but I find it really annoying and a waste of time.

3) On an insane map, I think trade resources are too numerous.  They can really shift the balance of the game when you get 2-3 dozen of them each through colonization and trade with other players.  Toward end game, this would become ridiculous.

5) Approval is still a mystery to me.  Morale relics are still not showing up as bonuses on the planet UI, but they do seem to have some affect.


End of Hamilmac's quote

   Are the Drengin conquering minors and using their stuff to expand?  They were not this insane in my games - 6th most powerful (of 9) in my latest.

   Colony rush is back.  Not sure how to slow it down though.  +10 production / +100% ship building makes Malevolent a must have for REX.  Reduce production of low pop worlds?  Low being 5 or less population.

   Colony ship w/o population should still be docked in home shipyard.  Look for shipyards with nothing built, or select them one at a time and eject.  I just found one of my scouts built in th early game sitting in my home shipyard, no idea how it got there.  I was more than halfway through age of war when I found it.

   The changing credits in diplomacy is new to Beta 2, did not see it in Beta 1 or previous.  Annoying, seems to be calculating something wrong.

   I agree, resources can get silly on larger maps.

   Approval is irrelevant now.  Hope that gets fixed, was too strong before.

 

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Ex, reply 7

Are the Drengin conquering minors and using their stuff to expand? They were not this insane in my games - 6th most powerful (of 9) in my latest.
 
Colony ship w/o population should still be docked in home shipyard. Look for shipyards with nothing built, or select them one at a time and eject. I just found one of my scouts built in th early game sitting in my home shipyard, no idea how it got there. I was more than halfway through age of war when I found it.
End of Ex's quote

No idea on the Drengin in this game.  I've never seen this before.  When I first met them, I thought it was a bug in the diplomacy UI. :D  

As for the lost colony ship, when I have about a hundred shipyards, most of them defended (so they have a shield symbol), and almost all of them spamming colony ships, I gave up trying to find the missing ship after manually going through about a dozen shipyards.  Maybe there is an easier way that I just haven't found.

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I am seeing the opposite effect, in fact the game I'm playing I think the AI is broken.  I am in a huge spiral galaxy and I have taken the whole center unopposed. I will report further once I know for sure.

(BUGS)

1) I have been seeing for awhile now is the starting (stock) survey vessels weapons are not visually firing in the battles in all the races.

2) The galciv3.exe is also not shutting down properly when exiting the game, and is worse on this build and happening about 75% of the time for me.  I have to launch my task manager to shut it down.

3)Elerium lasers show up before I had researched weapons, and then when I did research them the Elerium lasers disappeared.

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Hamilmac, reply 6

Okay, so the first question is: Why do the Drengin have so many colonies?  At 178 colonies, my approval is down to 24%, so I don't know how they're managing it.
End of Hamilmac's quote

With that many colonies their population per planet must be less than 2 billion. That would affect their approval wouldn't it? 

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

1) I have noticed that the game crashes more than 50% of the times whenever a battle is triggered.

 

2) I cannot load saved games, it always says it is not compatible with current version of the game although it was actually saved on the current version. This does not happen with autosaved games.

 

3) Game begins to crash almost avery turn when game gets crowded, I now have 70 colonies in inmense and available planets to colonize are not scerce, is turn 150 more or less, and game has becomed unplayable at this point.

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Franco, reply 10

With that many colonies their population per planet must be less than 2 billion. That would affect their approval wouldn't it?
End of Franco's quote

I don't know.  It's -1% approval for every world so the Drengin are almost -400% approval just from their colonies.  I now have 195 colonies and my global approval is 14%.  Considering I have all of the trade resources from every major and minor power except the Drengin, plus the Benevolent approval bonuses, plus four morale relics at 90%, and plus most of my worlds having at least one starbase granting approval bonuses, I just don't know how the Drengin aren't at 0%. Or does it matter?  At 14% approval, I'm not really suffering too much.  My fleets defend my planets, global production bonuses keep my worlds churning. . . .

I would assume that approval isn't finished, yet.

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Artamendia, reply 11

3) Game begins to crash almost avery turn when game gets crowded, I now have 70 colonies in inmense and available planets to colonize are not scerce, is turn 150 more or less, and game has becomed unplayable at this point.
End of Artamendia's quote

My game at turn 150 is not suffering as yours is, but I am experiencing serious lag, particularly with ship movement.  I opened Task Manager and Resource Monitor from Windows and my CPU never gets above 60% utilization and usually hovers around 38%, I still have 5 GB of available physical RAM, and my hard drive is not being taxed, so I don't know why the game is struggling so much.

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Ex, reply 7

   Are the Drengin conquering minors and using their stuff to expand?  They were not this insane in my games - 6th most powerful (of 9) in my latest.
End of Ex's quote

I'm also seeing this in my game the Drengin have twice the colonies the next person has...

Reply #15 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Hamilmac, reply 12


Quoting Franco fx,
reply 10

With that many colonies their population per planet must be less than 2 billion. That would affect their approval wouldn't it?



I don't know.  It's -1% approval for every world so the Drengin are almost -400% approval just from their colonies.  I now have 195 colonies and my global approval is 14%.  Considering I have all of the trade resources from every major and minor power except the Drengin, plus the Benevolent approval bonuses, plus four morale relics at 90%, and plus most of my worlds having at least one starbase granting approval bonuses, I just don't know how the Drengin aren't at 0%. Or does it matter?  At 14% approval, I'm not really suffering too much.  My fleets defend my planets, global production bonuses keep my worlds churning. . . .

I would assume that approval isn't finished, yet.

End of Hamilmac's quote

Funny thing, In a game I am currently playing, insane map, normal AI, I am not having the approval problems, but I only have 28 planets at turn 109. I just met the Drenghi and they are going nuts colonizing in my game as well. I was ahead of 4 other factions by 7-8 colonies and here comes the Drenghi with 54-55 colonies and a fleet of about 50 colonies ships. Another funny thing, I wnet in for a trade with them and the only tech they had available was population fech. They must be having a hard time populating all those colonies to be researching population tech instead of their usual military tech. They are far behind in military and I have never seen that.

Reply #16 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The Drengin did basically the same thing in my last game.   They ended up with 290 Colonies when i was only at 86.     They then got the overlord on each planet perk and they then came through and happily destroyed my fleets..   all while having -12,000 credits and no production and thus no way of actually taking over my planets.

So I decided to go pure Influence (I expected this to fail but maybe I could take a few other races systems on the way) and  after a few turns of forced influence production oddly enough was able to influence flip their first few planets...  and then 10 or 20 planets in a turn...

Within 15 turns I had flipped everything except their capitol.   

SOOOOOO yeah, that's broken.   I'm guessing that negative money + negative approval creates a really fast influence flip rate or something.

 




Reply #17 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Taslios, reply 16

Within 15 turns I had flipped everything except their capitol. 
End of Taslios's quote

In my game, the Drengin have "researched" the Malevolent ideology perk that prevents culture flips.  By the way, so have I.  Influence should not work against such civilizations.

Reply #18 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The Drengin are currently broken. They have double the race perks than any other race and it will be fixed in the next patch. I have stopped playing my insane map as the Drengin are crazy big.

 

Uncommon planets is handing out way too many. It needs to be 'toned' down a bit more. I like playing where the availability of habitable planets is a GIFT and you explore rapidly to find as many as you can.

 

Tight clusters needs a minor tweak on Excessive and Insane maps so we still get bigger clusters but a nice space in between them.

Reply #19 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Hamilmac, reply 17


Quoting Taslios,
reply 16

Within 15 turns I had flipped everything except their capitol. 



In my game, the Drengin have "researched" the Malevolent ideology perk that prevents culture flips.  By the way, so have I.  Influence should not work against such civilizations.

End of Hamilmac's quote

 

This is exactly why I expected it to fail....   I was expecting to maybe get a few of the other races planets but do nothing to the red team....  but alas...