SerakX

I don't think it breaks immersion at all. Unlike you, the player, scientists don't have a convenient technology tree to look at and go "Oh, I can make this smaller AND faster". Just like all of the other races in the galaxy didn't develop Hyper Drive because only the Terrans figured out small scale fusion for power generation. Because of this, the Terrans had the power requirements met for Hyper Drive. The same idea applies to specializations: Something unique abou

Actually, the issue I've noticed here and correct me if I'm wrong is you're only supposed to be able to research a single Specialization. After that? You have to trade for them. However, right now it seems as though if you're gifted, or trade for, a specialization before you research one, you cannot research another one. I'd love to see the ability to always self-research a single one and acquire the others through trade. I'm not

I can't imagine why I, in the shoes of a reviewer, would ever get on a game about easy-to-fix bugs or typos. As an educated reviewer I would consider the company behind the game: Stardock. What does anyone know about Stardock? They have incredible post-release support and will be working on this game relentlessly. Therefore, what do I care about in my review? Big things. Big, hard to change things that will keep my review content current for as long as possible. This means not swe

Reviewers aren't going to hammer the AI of a base game in a franchise where 73% of players never once go above Beginner. I, for one, never once go above the difficulty where the AI gets additional bonuses the player does not. Min-maxing in a strategy game simply isn't my idea of fun, even if I could sit down, do the math, and game the system for extreme efficiency. I suppose I would have also preferred a more polished 1.0 but, when the game is already where it's at, what&#

In order of preference? Galactic Civilizations 3 No Man's Sky Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Star Wars Battlefront is definitely a favorite among my friends, along with the other games on the list! Apparently these are the games a bunch of skinny kids in their early 20s play.

It's annoying, yes, but stunningly far from game-breaking. I'm pretty sure you can cut United Planets frequency down to...never. A minor problem in terms of correcting it. It's a very powerful political tool and I totally see use for it. Maybe if it were directed at a certain race...? Now that'd be one hell of a weapon early-game! Something like: "An interstellar body has determined that X Civilization has been polluting and ruining their planets almos

I've actually been quite pleased with Beyond Earth so far. Naturally there are no shortage of game play issues. The AI is a disaster, spamming cities lets you dominate even on Apollo, the list goes on. Other big ones: Wonders are awful, trade routes are too powerful when internal, health is great in concept but all sorts of poorly executed, the victories can be wildly divergent in difficulty, and this is all after 25+ hours of play. There are also flavor issues that bleed

If I remember Paul's explanation three weeks ago, the deal was this. Font system broke on laptops with integrated and discrete graphics. For a temporary fix they just force use of the integrated card. However, that's the weaker card. Now, us gaming laptop users are actually using our powerful gaming cards. The performance difference is night and day and I'm surprised the change log didn't emphasize that in big, bold letters.

Which is what's weird about this. We never passed any such law. But I'll double and triple-check before I call it a bug. Thanks for the head's up!

Sucks to be those five billion people, that's for sure! After settling two worlds (Mars and another world) as the Terrans in a Tiny Galaxy against the Krynn and Drengin I've found myself unable to colonize another world. I first noticed it with a Class 11 planet in the Drexler system. I have the save in question, should anyone want to check it out. Bummer too, I was excited to get things rolling now that Beta 2 let me use my discrete graphics card and get decent (wonde

More of a late stage, polish question here. Any intentions to resolve continuity discrepancies that were present in Galactic Civilizations 2, and others currently in the Beta? Examples include references to the Xendar (if I'm playing as Humans who don't even have a warship yet I don't want to see references to how I wiped them out) or events where there are natives on Mars, that sort of thing. I think that goes a long way to maintaining some of the addictive

Lord Kona's Status [] Not Told [] Told [] Toldasaurus Rex [X] Negotiated with Bradley

[quote who="NorsemanViking" reply="192" id="3470791"] There is an update there now called "thumbs", but how do you open a db-file?[/quote] You don't. That's just a Windows thumbnail cache file. It's normally invisible to users and only exists in directories with thumbnails (you know, all of them) as a system file. Stardock probably have made a minor goof. Though we have learned that Stardock does, in fact, run some Windows servers. :P

I'm all about this in almost every way, no surprise given my own thread on the matter . I'm also all about being able to simply bomb a population into oblivion. In a way it's much like the process of razing in the regular Civilization series. However, invading and overwhelming a population or fighting until your force is wiped out is a much quicker process than dropping bombs all over a planet or vaporizing every indivi

I see where Wer900 is coming from. As a mod for Gal Civ 3 I think his suggestion would be really fun! As for the standard game I think sticking to the current lore makes the most sense. One thing I do kind of like about his idea is the whole multi-map feature. I think there's something to be said about that which could really add a whole level of smooth functionality while also expanding the game. For instance, on the current map we see massive objects of appropria

I'm not surprised! That's good to know. Thanks for telling me, you're obviously more familiar with the boards than I am. And hey, I consider those extended conversations to be worth it on their own. :P As far as I'm concerned the only strike for me is suggesting an idea already very well kicked around. As for the UI, maybe it just rubbed me the wrong way. There are plenty of games far older whose UI I preferred. Civilization 4 and 3 come to mind.

For the record, the optional nature of the ship builder alone would have sold me on the game.

Given that I'm two for two so far I figured I'd toss out something else! Management, management, management. Playing Galactic Civilizations 2 I can attest to the fact that it got big and it got big fast . Especially on those particularly large maps. So I guess the question then becomes, both as a player and certainly for the developers: How

You'll find an encouraging conversation on the subject here . It can work, it can scale well, you just have to do it right and I think there's plenty to be gained!

All of that is an excellent point. This could get crazy fast depending on how deep you go with it. That very possibility is why I mentioned that you would need to make the decision very carefully as to how far you let it go. Features in games, especially ones like this, are a delicate balancing act of work required and the gain. Honestly, I think the ideal for me would be something like this. You conquer a planet and make your decision. If you integrate them it takes t

Well, really, all this actually adds to the game is the following: Three options after you successfully conquer a planet. One population pool per species on a planet. How much more complex it gets than that is up for debate. I like my TBS 4X gameplay to be very big picture--the less minutiae the better. However, I feel like this is the very sort of big picture decision I'd like control over. It also adds a fun layer of "Well I'd love to bring them into

That right there is a perfect example of an incredibly easy way to implement that. And you did that entirely off-hand. So let's work on that more, focusing on the middle two. I'd love to see the ability to actually have multiple populations on a single planet: Such as the invader and the invadee, so to speak. So for instance, let's say you conquer a planet and they surrender with 25% of their population remaining. Fold that into the total population of the planet.<

Or maybe that ultra-rich civilization (who you've totally been sucking up to) is suddenly assaulted by a major military power, opening up the potential for you to swoop in and return any invaded planets as necessary in order to build up the favor you couldn't get before? I bet they'll be a lot more receptive to your Trade Treaty once you've liberated a couple billion of their citizens a handful of planets. I mean, I would be.

Given the success of my last idea I think I'll dare to bring up another! Currently in Galactic Civilizations it appears that you, when you invade a planet and conquer it successfully, simply eradicate the population down to last man and your soldiers become the appropriate colonists. Although it doesn't technically state that you've wiped them all out the way your remaining number

[quote who="LordChess" reply="12" id="3456799"]I really like your thinking and wholeheartedly agree... with one minor exception... 'empty worlds being ridiculous' - with the advent of galactic resources and (influence) starbases etc having deadspace adds a degree of depth because it becomes contested space with no immediate colonies meaning sensors (ability to detect enemies), life support systems (distance), engines (speed), raid/surprise attack tactics, etc etc come into play. Besid