Quote Originally Posted by Nikpalj
I've always wanted to know how complex is the portrayal of space combat in gal civ 1. I think I've seen moo-like top down combat somewhere?! Ok, I'll accept that - but only if the actual mechanics of combat are as realistic as possible. I've never liked th huge 40 + ship "firing lines" from endgame moo...
I didn't play the original version, but the tactical combat couldn't have been very good because it's very basic in the current GalCiv2. It's just eye candy to reflect the underlying number-crunching. You have no control over anything, you can only watch. Ships are way too close together, and maneuvering is unrealistic (no difference in apparent tactics between small ships and huge battleships). Weapon fire looks odd because weapons are fixed in place and not in turrets, but they still shoot in all directions. This isn't GalCiv's strong point, although the way you can design your own ships with 3D parts is way cool. It almost makes up for the silly space combat animations.

The real "action" in the game takes place on the strategic map and the diplomatic and economic management screens. So you'd probably want to skip the combat animation sequence if you're a purist and looking for realistic space combat... although I'm not sure that's ever been done well in a computer game!