New Player Observations

from GalCiv3 Forums

Ok, I'm hoping this will help the devs out (if they read it). These are the few issues I feel that need addressing that I've noticed. Obviously this list isn't exhaustive.

 

1) Population. With Crusade there is no incentive (indeed mainly penalties) for increasing population. The square root formula currently being used just doesn't make it worthwhile to invest in any buildings of this type basically doing away with the whole Food/morale paths as well. This is a shame and seems counter intuitive. Needs addressing - there are plenty of threads with ideas on how to do this.

 

2) Trading. Currently broken if the AI has a negative credit balance. You can get ALL his ships for something like open borders. In a recent game I met the Terrans with a -231 balance. I traded tech with them but was able to add in his entire fleet (including the starting survey ship, 2 colony, 2 constructor ships) Obviously not working as intended

 

3) Trading. Again, not as game breaking as the first one but an exploitation that shouldn't really be available. Resources - when trading it is possible to fill up any excess with multiple resources. If the AI has 10 promotion they will be willing to part with 2 but 3 is a deal breaker - however if they also have 17 Thulium you can add 4 of these & so on & so on. These all should have a value per unit to the AI so I shouldn't be able to not be able to take 3 promethium but can take 2 promethium+ 4 thulium + 2 antimatter + 1 snuggler etc. (basically as long as the trade amount is below 25% of the total owned by the AI {with diminishing returns when they have large numbers of a particular resource})

 

4) Save time - Not a big deal but thought I'd mention it. Once past 10 hours the save time seems completely strange. For instance I can load up a save that says I've played for 10hrs 32 minutes & play for 3 hours & now the save is showing as 10hrs & 43 mins.

 

5) In a recent game, after about 15 hours or so, (Gigantic map - 13 players) it seemed that traded technologies from the AI wasn't adding any bonuses at all.

The 2 main ones that I spotted were:

Planetary Specialization - Soil Enhancement - Meant to add +1 food but didn't

Trade Route Optimization - Meant to add Trade Route Value +10% - My trade value before & after acquiring this tech (via trading) was 55.

I'm not sure if its just these specific techs that are broken, or the fact that I acquired them via trading is the issue.

 

At present I wish to play the game as I do like it, however in its current state there is just too much not working properly to justify playing it. I do hope this gets read by the devs as its not a "moan" thread but hopefully a way of highlighting some issues.

7,401 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

This is a good summary of the current major balance/bugs. I'm pretty sure the devs are aware of all of these, but another "these are the top issues" thread helps highlight that fact.

Those two techs aren't the only ones that are broken, whether you traded for them or researched them. There are some techs that state you get X building after researching but it never shows.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I'm not a SD dev, but I have no problem calling it a moan thread, because that is where we're at.  It could be worse.  When I first played Rogue War and Lords of Magic, that didn't last very long.   I wrote off my purchase, showed little mercy in my reviews, and moved on.   Galciv3 has addictive elements that make me long to play, and issues that make me go "uuuuuuhhhhhhhh" long into the night. 

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Your wrong re this being a moan thread. If I thought the game was rubbish I would simply move on to something else. In my opinion the game has a lot of promise, hence why I took the time to write a summary of where I think improvements could be made. If the Devs choose not to address these issues that is up to them.

For instance, I paid full price for Diablo 3 but thought it was nowhere near as good as Diablo 2 - Rather than spend my time writing reviews, I simply haven't played it again. However I think Gal Civ 3 would be a game I'd wish to play, just not at the moment with the issues I have highlighted.

The whole point of the thread was more a wish-list than anything else, with the hope that the devs (again if they even see it) would get feedback from the perspective of a new player.