They finally put some effort into map generation? Thank freaking god. GalCiv3 maps have always had terrible map gen. And I think it turns a lot of people off to get 200 turns in only to realize that they were screwed from the get-go.
But, we're *getting* the first full blown expansion. Mercenaries. In Feb. That said, I don't see word of the invasion update in it's feature list. And it's off the roadmap.
I no longer see it on the roadmap given news of the expansion. Planetary invasion/defenses still feels pretty broken. Is there still some update planned for this? Is there going to be an invasion UI? Also, where's me bloody Terror Stars!
I'm not proposing removing starbases from the map. I'm just saying that they should be able to occupy the hex of a planet. You can't put multiple starbases in one hex as is.
Earth has two existing orbital stations. Sounds like a thing you could do. It would probably be a tough nut to crack though with two or more. So for game purposes, it's probably better to only allow one.
Or they could just, you know, let starbases orbit planets like you'd expect them to be able to. Then they act as defensive fleets, and they'd give planets additional sensor range. Of course this brings me to another complaint, that the star base range is too small, requiring you to produce too many starbases. If they'd just up the range, so that it's more likely than not that you're getting multiple planets per base... You wouldn't HAVE to b
+25% isn't going to do a whole lot. That doesn't really solve planet defense.
I don't see any such starbase modules in my tech tree... Not sure which tech you are talking about? Maybe it's only in certain race's trees?
Basically, you win by having more planets and bigger planets. Which would be fine, except that you cannot defend all of those planets without a strong fleet. You can try to play peaceful, but the larger your borders, the more impossible it becomes to keep people from just gobbling up an undefended planet before you can even see their ships coming. So, if you have to have large numbers of ships, you might as well be playing militarily. It's unfortunate. You ca
Additional thoughts: Blank space still takes up a lot of the map. It'd be nicer if there was necessary resources in there like Dyson spheres, or something. Asteroids should be made to do something again. Nebula should be even larger. The zoom level at which things become icons should be adjustable.
I decided that 1.5 was a good time to take a look at where the game is, and what my hopes are for the future. I've been with GalCiv since way back in GalCiv 1, an I'm a big fan of turn-based strategies in general. Things I like: 1) The universe is becoming more interesting. Precursor worlds and resources finally give a REASON to explore the universe. 2) Mods are coming alive. Gauntlet's Race Mod? AMAZING. 3) Ship designer
The problem is with the additive nature of components in general. Strapping 20 engines on shouldn't be 20x as effective. There should be some exponential decrease for each new component. For example, if the first engine gives you speed 1, then the second gives you 1.5. A third would give you 1.75. A better engine might give you 2. And then a second better engine would give you 3. This would solve the problem for engines AND sensors in one sw
I haven't seen anywhere that said that the AI never used the planetary wheel. Perhaps you know more on that than me. But you can use the planetary wheel to micromanage your planets in a way that gets you small gains (get that ship/research one turn early with no noticeable decrease elsewhere). It's annoying to do, as a human. Especially if you're dealing with dozens of planets. But as an AI? It's easy. It's the sort of easy bread
Great. Then maybe they'll make the building buildings part of the game fun instead of hiding behind sliders to make the economy work. The production wheel was nothing but a massive crutch that the AI could endlessly exploit and humans could not (without it becoming a terrible game).
Death to the wheel. May it burn in game designer hell.
I second the removal of the production wheel also. I hate that stupid thing.
- Invasion Feature - Terror Stars - Legendary Deeds (see Endless Legend's Guardian expansion)... I think these add important subgoals to the game. - Stealth ships, combat with sensors - Planetary minor improvements (sensor range, defense improvements, etc.) that don't affect the limited planet hexes. - A diplomacy game system. Warscore, cassus belli, fear/respect. Whatever. Something more than just trading and positive/ne
- You're at war? Guess you'll be at war until the END OF THE GAME or until someone dies. Unless you feel like unconditional surrender. There needs to be some willingness to end wars eventually. - I wish I could set the range at which it goes to strategic mode. My screen is quite large. I could be looking at nice ships much further out.
Comments: - Kinetic drivers are terrible. Speed and lots of durantium around doesn't make up for the huge mass. Cost could count for something if the mass didn't require larger hulls. - Sensor ships shouldn't be required gameplay. Planets should have increasing sensor ranges. - Too many starbases are required. Planets should be able to mine resources. This would greatly cut down on the number of needed starbases. <p
This is just plain silly, btw. They should have a "random" option which randomly generates the race for you. Almost no one wants to go build themselves 100 custom factions. And if you did, it would just clutter up your game start menu.
I really want this feature, actually. And the assumption would be that if you rename Biggusdingus to Fromulatus, then Biggusdingus III would become Fromulatus III. It'd love being able to rename systems in this way so that I wouldn't have to name planets individually.
I'm not going to download 124 races or so to fill up an immense galaxy. Just allow *randomly generated* races as well. It could be cool to meet aliens who were quite alien.
It's too easy to create a galaxy that is just completely empty right now.
Yeah, I didn't even know they were there. If there's a feature like this, it should be made visible.
I don't think there's anything subtle about it. More expensive, better ships, or cheaper, weaker ships. That choice is repeated over and over through out the tree. It's not interesting, and that's a game development sin. I've seen another tech that either increases manufacturing 15% or reduces cost 15%. Is that also subtle? I think it's just easy to implement and unimaginative. Maybe that's all we have