Crocell44

[quote who="parrottmath" reply="76" id="3478283"] Now, in Gal Civ 2, which doesn't have starports. I did (I played it out just now to see) effectively blockaded and dominated the other opponent at turn 10. By that turn I was pushing out a combat ship per turn and eventually when I got planetary invasion I couldn't do much to counteract my invasion. Having 15 ships around each of their planets effectively destroyed them.[/quote] Building continuously ships for 15 turns is

[quote who="Wintercross" reply="6" id="3477853"] Hopefully one day I'll get my wish of an updated Xcom game that holds more true to the originals gameplay style and options. [/quote] Have you tried Xenonauts ? It came out of early access very recently (last month or so). It is highly praised by players who felt Firaxis game was not true enough to the original. I have yet to try it myself...

I agree with Slashimus : play directly Enemy Within. I don't think gameplay changes are difficult to grasp, most of them adress flaws from EU. I don't think EW is harder, enemies are slightly more powerful, but you also are. There is a big gap in difficulty between normal and classic difficulty. For a first playthrough, I recommend normal : you will make mistakes while learning the game, normal difficulty allows you to survive those mistakes. If you are used to strateg

You can also take population from every connected planet accordingly to their contribution to starport. It would not complicate the UI, but it means you have to spread out production if you want to invade a lot of planets.

[quote who="allie-cat" reply="23" id="3470923"] Yeah, the game portraying planetary conquest as automatically entailing the wholesale slaughter of the existing population is something that's always bothered me about Galciv games.[/quote] I also found it strange at first, but I like the gameplay consequences. Conquering planets consumes a lot of your population, so you must be really prepared for it if you want to gobble up another empire's planets after wiping out its na

There is still a cycle : you actually have 9 designs : laser/shields, guns/shields, missile/shields, laser/armor, etc. Each of these 9 designs is strong against two others, weak against two, and balanced against 5. For example, L/S is strong against L/A and L/PD, and weak against G/S and M/S. It's more complicated than RPS, but it is the same core mechanic. Many RPG attack and defense types are also variations of RPS.

There is something like this in the game FAQ : "Q: Will the game require a network connection to play? A: No. However, some of the AI learning mechanisms will require access to the Metaverse in order to perform analysis on player strategies. This will be optional and able to be disabled by the player but does require an Internet connection."

This week-end I looked for a Factorio thread on this forum, and I was surprised not to find one. I guess I didn't dig far enough... So, Factorio is an indie game about building a factory. It was first funded by a crowdfunding campaign in Feb 2013 and has been in early access alpha since then. A free demo is available and the full game is sold 10 euros on dev's site (it will go up to 15 euros by June 1st). It is not available on Steam (

It is not accessible by the main menu. You've got to start a new game to access it.

[quote quoting="post"] Habitation spokes come next. I tried to use Symmetry here but the rotation is wrong. Instead of rotating in the same direction, Symmetry caused the parts to rotate in opposite directions. [/quote] I also like rotating wheels in my designs, and I think a radial symmetry feature would really help with those and with rocket shaped ships. You would have to select an axis and a number of copies, and it would put n c

There is a similar system in Fallen Enchantress : you build a crystal mine (for example), stockpile crystal, and you must use it to build advanced units. IMO this system works fine : you never have enough ressources, so you must design cheap units to fill up your armies and protect your expensive elite units. For GC3, ressource gathering is annouced but not yet implemented, so I assume the devs will design something similar.

Do you plan events where the most efficient choice is benevolence/pragmatism, or do you want to keep a "malevolence is the easiest way" approach ?

I just checked, and yes, you could set up basic build plans. I had never found them in game, I feel dumb...

Judging from the Govern Planet screen, I assume SD has plans for programmable governors (and I very hope so !)

[quote who="Markon" reply="5" id="3458145"] Also, if I have a planet with several ships at it, and I want to selectively launch off a few of them, I wouldn't want to have to click the planet each time...[/quote] I wondered about that after writing my post, and I thought : ejected ship could be selected if it was the last ship defending. But changing the rules of the UI could be confusing. In any case, when shipyards come into play, our habits may change (and if

[quote who="chepelink" reply="9" id="3457832"] In the end, I think that if SD does a good job balancing population vs factories you can end with something like this: PQ 20>PQ>10: Depends on the bonus tiles, sometimes mixed, sometimes specialized. PQ>20: Most of the time, if not always, specialized. [/quote] I hadn't thought about farms and I agree with your conclusion. Farms and factories multiply each other, so

I just finished a couple of games. First of all, congratulations : even in this early stage, the game is still enjoyable (I was expecting something much less polished). On specific aspects : 1) Small galaxies are not so small, I like that. 2) I love the idea of ideology trees. 3) I am dubious towards the improvement placement mini-game : I fear that it will lead to too much micromanagement with big empires. 4) You should be notified when a ship is b

Well, I wanted to start a discussion about this too. So, here's my two cents. Balanced planets are more flexible (you can easily switch to money if you need quick cash), so it makes sense for specialized planets to be more efficient. But at the moment, specialized planets are far too efficient : my estimates (see maths below) show +75% to +150% more efficient, when I feel it should be between +20% and +50%. I see a few ways to address this issue : -Reducin