Galactic Civilisations 2

[The_Doctor]

Does anybody have this yet?

I will be getting it on Friday.

The reviews are good:
http://www.nlgaming.com/nl/asp/id_13...reviewDisp.htm
http://www.pcgameworld.com/reviews/g...iew.php/id/889

[discovery1]

Yes, I do. And there is a thread a while back on it. It's good. I'm barely holding my own against the greatest power in the galaxy in my latest(2nd) game

[Xiahou]

Yeah, I dl'ed it for free because of my grandfathered totalgaming.net membership. It seems pretty cool, but I havent spent too much time on it as of yet.

[Reverend Joe]

"Far out, man, all right, I've been waitin' for this one!"

[BelgradeWar]

Hmmm, maybe I'll try it. Can someone tell me is it something like Space Empires IV, because that was by far the most advanced game of this type, albeit not too fancy in appearance...

[Martok]

Well I'm getting it tomorrow (my pre-order finally shipped out; yay!). I'll try and let you know--assuming I'm able to stop playing it, anyway.

[frogbeastegg]

:froggy enters the thread again, muttering to herself that she does not have time for another game, especially not one of those time consuming strategy ones, least of all when she recently escaped civ 4's clutches and definitely not since it has taken her over 2 months to make 5 hours of progress in Prince of Persia SOT!:

I demand you stop making this game sound good!

:Sees the comment about it being a more complex version of civ set in space. Resolve teeters, under the excuse that there is no harm in just asking:

Alternatively, anyone want to compare this to civ 4 and Alpha Centarui (which sounds like the closest matches I've played) for a frog? Where it is better, where it is not, little nice features, things which feel like they are missing, and so on. Sounds like it may be worth waiting for another patch ... is it likely to be well supported?

[Xiahou]

... is it likely to be well supported?

If GalCiv1 is any indication, I'd say yes. They had several patches and a free add-on with new content in addition to a full 'for pay' expansion. Im really pleased with Stardock thus far.

I finally got started with my first real game with a small galaxy and uncommon habitable planets with 6 (Me, Altarians, Torians, Drengin, Iconian, and Yor) total races. I lost the planet lottery and was only able to get one 10 quality planet other than Earth before all the good ones were snapped up. I did find an awesome PQ18 planet, but the Iconians got to it way before my colony ship was even near it. Knowing I was in trouble, I went 100% research and charged down the diplomacy tree so I could hopefully do some advantageous technology trades with other civs. As I made contact with other civs, it became clear that the Iconians were the civ to beat as first the Drengin and later the Yor surrendered to them. Naturally, they started trying to extort funds from me and just as naturally, I told them to go to hell.

Long story short- they started attacking me, but my technological advances helped me stave them off even with the massive production disparity. Finally, my "luck" points paid off and I uncovered 2 complete Ranger class starships which allowed me to slaughter any fleets they had in my sectors, but they were too far away for me to hit em where it would count. So, what do I do? I screw over my neighbors- the peace loving Torians. They folded like a cheap suit after I took their homeworld in a suprise attack, allowing me the production and the range to go after the Iconians finally. I've now conquered 3 Iconian planets and have them on the ropes. Great stuff.

[frogbeastegg]

The Paradox version of the game (the one in shops in Europe) is a very nice production. I'm impressed. The DVD case is metal, yet still manages to be slimmer than a normal case. The manual is highly glossy, well bound, and actually mostly useful ... for a modern games manual. The tech tree does disappoint though, and lets down the package - it doesn't tell you what any of the techs do! Gah! Confused amphibian ahoy.

Installation, now there is another question entirely. Trouble. Not excessive trouble, but still enough to leave me cursing. It took so long for the installer to load I thought it had crashed or my CD was a dud; Windows itself reported the program as not responding. Good thing I come from the "Gah! If it doesn't work the first two times, and if it keeps on crashing, just try again with liberal inventive cursing and leave the PC alone for five minutes to see if it decides to cooperate!" school of computing. Or I'd have taken it back to the shop for a new copy.

A tip for anyone else getting the Paradox edition: The CD key on the back of the manual is not the only key you need. You have to go here, bung in your key to receive another one. This is the one you need to install and use the Stardock direct thingy and/or get patches and updates. Confusingly both are referred to as your serial number. I gather there was a slight mess up when creating the first CD keys for the Paradox version and that this is a workaround solution. :grumble:

Game finally installed and a good half hour of trying to navigate the serial number/patch/update/stardock/GAH! swamp and I booted the game up.

Like the music, very tasteful. All else follows that - the bad beginning has certainly not been followed by a poor game. I've hardly done a thing with it, yet I can see so many things I want to try. I watched the tutorials (I think I have some new ones to watch from the downloaded update ...) and they were educational, better than civ 4's at any rate. Even if they were non-interactive and still left me without a real feel for what to do at the start of my first game. No, what they did - and did well - was show me the many things I might like to do.

There are so many options! I'm impressed.

This bit from the manual I think deserves quoting:
(From the section on difficulty levels, bold is my emphasis)
Fool: AI's economy runs at 10% of normal. No higher algorithms enabled.
Beginner: AI's economy runs at 25% of normal. No higher algorithms enabled.
Sub-normal: AI's economy runs at 50% of normal. No higher algorithms enabled.
Normal: AI's economy runs at 75% of normal. AI evaluates common human tactics.
Bright: AI's economy runs at 100% of normal. Evaluates most human tactics.
Intelligent: AI's economy runs at 100% of normal. AI expertly picks abilities and all known human tactics are searched and countered.
Genius: AI's economy runs at 125% of normal. All higher algorithms in place (same as above)
Incredible: AI's economy runs at 200% of normal. All higher algorithms in place.

From what I hear of the AI it works damned well too. I wonder if it will be updated to reflect what players do? Hope so.

What do people like to do at the start of a new game? I've played all of 40 minutes this morning, and I wonder if I ignored the military side a bit too much. I didn't really know where to research first for best result, except the translator so I could understand the aliens. There are so many techs you have to research before you even get your first weapons and defences, and then there are the three different types of each. Military research looks as though it will take up a very good proportion of the research part of the game.

Away from research I scouted, found a galaxy full of class 0 planets and a small handful of class 4 -10 ones, the closer ones of which I colonised. Did a bit of tech trading. Built a couple of space stations on special resources. Built my planets up a bit, trying to keep things even between cash/research/production instead of specialised. I had created my first trade route when I had to quit to go to work.

[Vladimir]

Froggy's guides are always a pleasure to read. I might get this game after all.

[Kraxis]

Since it doesn't cost you to demolish structures I would say that it is good to build structures, then when better ones pop up you can get those going.

[GoreBag]

At the beginning of the game, my best advice is not to use all of the slots on your planets right away. That's your permanent number of building slots, and you will want to build other things later. For the beginning you ought not to need more than two or three slots used up on your home planet. But once you get trade routes going, and an economic capital, you can afford to start seriously packing in the factories and research buildings.

No, they're not the permanent number of slots. As Kraxis mentioned, any building can be 'upgraded' to any other building at no additional cost (beyond the money you're pumping into social production), and additional will appear on most planets after certain technologies (Soil Enhancement, Habitat Improvement and Terraforming) have been researched and implemented.

Also, certain...things can lower a planet's quality rating, lowering the number of available 'slots'.

[Xiahou]

What do people like to do at the start of a new game? I've played all of 40 minutes this morning, and I wonder if I ignored the military side a bit too much. I didn't really know where to research first for best result, except the translator so I could understand the aliens. There are so many techs you have to research before you even get your first weapons and defences, and then there are the three different types of each. Military research looks as though it will take up a very good proportion of the research part of the game.

For me, and probably everyone else, the opening game is a mad scramble to colonize as many decent or better quality planets that you can find. I usually peg my spending rate as high as possible (usually even running a deficit week to week) and pour everything into military and research spending, shutting down social entirely at first. Depending on the situation (ie: having more colony ships than decent planets that I can find), I'll also cut military spending pretty drastically and really try to get a jump on technology. I'll often try to hit the diplomacy branch first, so I can tradeup non-vital techs to other civs as advantageously as possible.

Once it looks like all the good planets are gone, I'll re-adjust my spending and resource allocation as the situation warrants and begin to start on planetary improvements.

[GoreBag]

I just shell out money on purchasing my ships directly. I'm usually too slow anyway, though, depending on the size of the galaxy and number of opponents.

[ah_dut]

One wee little question: how does this game fare for people who only play say an hour a week. Is it like dungeon keeper, where I can just go on and off or is it the type of game where I have to play for ages to get anywhere (like the X series)

[Zenicetus]

It works fine if you only have a little time here and there to play it. You can choose the length of each game by setting the map size and numbers of stars/habitable planets. Tiny and small maps push civs into contact very quickly, and the game won't last all that long (depending on what victory condition you're going for... conquest is faster than a tech or influence victory).

The larger maps lead to longer games, where you'll have a better chance of moving through most of the tech tree. So you can basically choose the type of game you want. It's nothing at all like X2 or X3 where your economic expansion and military power is locked into a non-adjustable timeline in a fixed universe. I'm dipping into GalCiv2 campaigns when I can find an hour or two of free time here and there, while also trying to finish a Sassanid campaign in RTW/BI, and also indulging my wife's obsession with WoW.

P.S. there is a scripted Dreadlord campaign, and I don't know how long that takes. I've been having too much fun just playing the sandbox game, gradually ramping up the map size and AI quality as I learn the mechanics.

[Butcher]

Regarding support, it is Published by Paradox, and there are patches out already (it wouldn't be a Paradox game without it! :D).

Game is one of the best I've played so far.

[Fragony]

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

This game sounds awesome. Why do they do this to me? Is it for mac as well?