Martok

Reply to Political Parties Explained in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I was going to say, if any party would be the obvious choice, it would be the Federalists. Getting an economic bonus *and* a production bonus is hard to beat....at least on paper.

Reply to Medieval: Total War in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Dude, M:TW has been on my Top 5 list of games to get this year since it was first announced--MOO3, Neverwinter Nights, AoW 2, and (obviously) GalCiv rounding out the rest. It looks like it's going to have just about everything I've ever dreamed of in a conquer-the-world, turn-based strategy game. I can't wait for it to come out this fall.

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Unfortunately, there was no showing for MOO3 at E3 for the PC. They did have a private show done for the Mac version, but that was it. Otherwise Quicksilver has been too busy to do anything other than continue working on the game. Yeah, it sucks, but what can you do....

Reply to GalCiv VS. MOO3, Stars, Space Empires, etc. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Here here. Unremitting genocide does get old after a while.

Reply to Strategy First to publish GalCiv in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I've been tempted to get Disciples 2, but for one thing--there's no skirmish/non-linear campaign mode. I don't like being forced to play a campaign through a series of missions, each with set objectives. I generally like to play games that are *open-ended*, and D2 can't be played that way. Which is a real shame, because it looks really, really cool otherwise. You know, come to think of it, the only turn-based fantasy strategy game I know of that *does* play as a non-linear campaign

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Actually, the release isn't until 3rd quarter now--we're under the impression it won't be out until fall sometime.

Reply to GalCiv VS. MOO3, Stars, Space Empires, etc. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well as far as SE IV goes, I've played the demos for both the original and the gold versions. Let me just say this: it's my opinion that in order to truly enjoy playing this game you need to 1) absolutely LOVE feature-rich games, and 2) really, really, really, REALLY, love micromanagement! It's a pretty cool game in concept and design; but speaking for myself, I was completely overwhelmed by everything I had to keep track of. I think you need to be an extremely detail-oriented person to get t

Reply to Strategy First to publish GalCiv in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Alex, do you mean the original AoW, or are you a beta tester for the sequel? I'm just curious. I've been looking for a turn-based fantasy strategy game, and Disciples II looks interesting, but I also wanted to know how AoW: The Wizard's Throne will turn out before I make any decision. (I'm not even considering Heroes 4; just about everyone I know says it's drivel.)

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

A note of caution on those screenshots... We were just told on the forum today that some of them are already out of date, and that others aren't actually in use for the game, but are only used as "guides" for the UI programmers. And of course, most of the text and pictures are still placeholder art. I thought I'd point that out before anyone wonders why some of them might look a bit strange.

Reply to Cyber Poll in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Jack, If you say so; you've been around here a lot longer than me so you certainly know better than I. It still seems to me, though, that "replayability" is a much broader and more general term than the choices given in the poll. If a strategy game has a high replayability value, wouldn't it have a high quality level of most or all of those things mentioned in the poll? [shrug] I dunno.

Reply to Cyber Poll in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

My guess is that it's assumed that these 6 choices are the main things that *contribute* to a game's playability (and REplayability!), and that they therefore assumed that (re)playability is the most important aspect overall regardless.

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Brad, I don't think there's hardly *anyone* who cared for the micromanagement in that game (or any other). :) True, I know there are some players out there who really dig that sort of thing; but I'm quite certain you and myself are in the majority in wishing that *that* aspect of empire-building games could at least be ameliorated, if not eliminated entirely. That's why I'm glad MOO3 is going to have numerous macro-management tools, especially for the mid to late game. (If you want to know w

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Hound, I don't think I could have put it any better than you have! Your statement reminds me of a saying from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series: "Violence is the last resort of the incompetent." Not that *we're* incompetent, of course, but the AI players clearly are. :) "I wish the world would follow that philosophy." Indeed; if only that were so. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, "If wishes were horses, we'd all ride." Still, I personally think we could still make it.

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

That's funny, I would've said that *micromanagement* is the least interesting part, but to each his own.... ;p Seriously, though, combat isn't that big a deal to me either, although for myself I'd probably rank it as a higher priority than economics (not that any of these aspects you mentioned are NOT important in this type of strategy game). I daresay that if *I* were designing my own space civ game (not that I could do so to save my life!) I would probably put diplomacy as being t

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Ditto on that Hound. So far this game looks to be very promising, even if it's not as "flashy" as MOO3. It probably won't exactly have the space combat I would like to see; but it does look to have excellent diplomacy and AI, which will more than make up for that IMHO. I'm simply amazed at all the work Brad & Co. are putting into this game.

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Hey Hound, good to see you over here. I suppose you're right about that. I guess it's just that in my admittedly limited experience, the hysterics on the MOO3 forum was somewhat more than I was used to. I believe you if you say that's pretty much the norm; perhaps I just got lucky that the places where I visited the people tended to be a little more cool-headed. :)

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The other thing to keep in mind Alex, is that (at least from my perspective) the majority of MOO fans are a bit more--rabid, shall we say?--than GalCiv fans, and tend towards hysteria a little bit more as well. As a result, they seem to react more irrationally to posted screenshots than would otherwise be normal. That's just my opinion, anyway. I mean, seriously though, did you ever *read* some of the reactions they got??! Talk about being burned to a crisp! Now I'm not saying or

Reply to MOO3 problems in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Alex: There aren't any battle shots yet because Rantz (that's MOO3's art director for those who don't know) won't release any until he's satisfied they truly look "presentable", *and* that they'll concur with the final build. In the past fans would scream for screenshots for days on end, especially diplomacy and combat. When the art department finally relented and post some of the diplomatic shots on the website, however, they were then immediately criticized by a lot of people for how "crapp