NeutrinoSunset

Join Date 03/2013

Are anomalies always this dull?

Hi.

To start off here's a bit of background on my experience with GalCiv.

I tried hard to like GC2 but never got into it. The economy controls were incomprehensible, late game turned into constructor ship spam management hell, and I found it severely lacking in personality. On hearing about the GC3 sequel I was only slightly interested. Reviews of the initial release confirmed my fears that it was largely a clone of the original, with some glaring omissions, e.g. Espionage.

I was never going to buy any Sci-fi 4X without espionage and what with so many other Sci-fi 4X titles coming out GC3 fell as far off my radar as it was possible to get.

I saw some of the DLC coming out, which frankly irked me, as much of the DLC seems like stuff that the base game was incomplete without.

Then I saw reviews for the Crusade expansion which basically read, fixed economy, reduced grind, and espionage. I liked the look of the trailer and since it's on sale the price of the DLC was not a concern, so I took the plunge.

I'm rather glad I did. After playing for a couple of days (still haven't killed the Drengin in the tutorial yet, I'm lulling them into a false sense of security) I've been generally very impressed. Only two things are a let down.

1. The lack of any voice acting whatsoever was a frankly a bit of a shock, especially in the campaign start dialog. It's probably been a decade or more since I've seen a AAA title portray conversation as text at the bottom of the screen.

2. Anomalies. I have a science vessel set to explore anomalies on autopilot. I started off by reading the events as they popped up, but after a couple of turns it became apparent that it was a waste of time. Every anomaly I encounter is just some random minor buff. There's never any decision that needs to be made, there's never any risk.

I was expecting at least some of these anomalies to meaningful decisions, or even entry points into interesting story arcs. Are all anomalies really this dull throughout the entire game? If they really are nothing more than minor RNG driven buffs then I'd be inclined to just switch them off completely (if that's possible) since they add nothing whatsoever, but I don't want to do that if some of them are meaningful or important.

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They don't drive any sort of story, no. The biggest benefit the provide is a source of cash in the early game. There are also defended anomalies that frequently yield some welcomed bonuses when you can build up enough of a fleet to take them on.

i disagree on voice acting. I mostly find it annoying and repetitive (see: MOO:CTS). Also, the dialogue is something you can directly edit to make your own custom race dialogue. I'm glad stardock did not waste the resources on trying to put voice acting into the game.

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Taslios

Join Date 11/2002

+74

....   I mean no disrespect in this statement....

But since when was Gal Civ a AAA title?          AAA usually means major publisher with major investment...

Stardock is ahead of the curve but I'd still place them in the indi catagory..    yes they ARE a publisher and yes the have a lot of resources given that games are what they do for fun... rather than what they make their business on...

But they do everything in house in a way that Firaxis, Atari, Ubisoft, Paradigm, etc never do....

BUT to your initial point.

I am glad you are having fun with the game.   The thing about any Stardock game is that they are never really quite finished.    Unlike the majority of publishers they are very active in listening to their consumer groups and adding features.       A lot of things are also very often modified by the community.   I think the anomalies may be getting some love here soon... cause you are right, they are quite dull.

Minors are also an area that is basically a non feature at the moment. I suspect there is a reason for this and that they will be making a return to something more interactive soon.

Voice acting really doesn't add that much to the game.   I've asked for it for the major races, but given all the 1000s of custom races out there...   it would be hard, if not impossible to have as much uniqueness for each one without making a massively massively overbloated install just to hold all the sound clips...

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What are 'minors', I haven't come across those yet.

Given the diversity of races voice acting for the whole game may well be too much to ask, but a voiceover or two for the campaign start dialog and galactic achievements doesn't seem unreasonable. What about that research robot too, he doesn't even beep!

The music is good and UI sounds are fine, but I think a bit more could be done with the sound overall.

I am enjoying it though. Despite a few niggles it has masses more character than GalCiv2 ever did.

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Taslios

Join Date 11/2002

+74

Minors = Minor races.

They used to be able to be traded with and spoken to in diplomacy, but Brad and the team felt that that cheapened the game by making so many sources of trade available.

Now they are out there as planets to take, or send trade ships to but nothing else.

Oh, well if it is just the research stuff and intros then I agree... would be nice to get some more animations and voices there.

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erischild

Join Date 01/2012

+136

Anomalies used to give a wider range of results, including little ships you could use for a bare minimum fleet. In the overall adjustments and balancing, the anomalies got simplified and nerfed, mostly, and tend to deal with random cash amounts or a limited set of other options. None of them have had options other than attack defended items or don't. Not sure what is meant by "meaningful" in this context. Because anomalies have such a wide range of galactic effects depending on map size and frequency settings, creating a new set of interesting and attractive decisions, the unintended inflationary effects could be very disruptive. Or leave smaller maps seriously envious of the new mechanic, yet again.

No matter how many text entries they put in for the anomaly event dialogue boxes, they will get repetitive sooner or later. For people who notice such things, it will be sooner. Nowadays I quick scan the text to recognize the event and move on. I agree that it is irritating in many ways, but I don't think there is a practical answer that will address the really dialogue aware among us. What I personally need is an accurate memory erase that let me read all that clever text for the first time again. It would also help with certain favorite movies. Somebody once told me that alcohol and drugs would help with that, but I forgot who it was and what ratios they used.

As for voice talent, I have music going and I disable intros, so, no thank you.

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About the lack of decision-making searching anomalies--I have to disagree.

Huge game-start decision you have to make: whether to build a second surveyor. And if so, how do you design it?

Second, you are not just scouting for anomalies: you are scouting for planets and resources. I don't auto-survey until mid-game, minimum.

Third, you have to deal with rivals--some of them steal that anomaly you just spent 3 turns travelling for, and others will blow you up.

And fourth, sometimes you need to research a high-end tech, because you are about to discover a lot of "capsule" and "artifact" type anomalies, which can potentially give you 15% research. 15% of a lot is a lot.

Granted, I am not that far ahead of you on Galciv3. I just finished the Drengin tutorial on Gifted in 3 hours, and the first Altarian campaign vs. the Korx in about 8. But I have a bunch of Galciv2 experience behind me, and this dynamic didn't change much.

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Anomolies end up a bit like mining resources. You set ship to auto survey and pretty much leave it to it as if it was a mining station. I'd like to see something done to make survey ships and anomoly discovery a bit more interesting. Maybe the odd dilema that could give a bonus or start a war. Or give survey ships some kind of diplomacy missions or influence affect. Not really sure what would be good but they are a bit boring and you would expect them to be more interesting.

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Totally. Granting ideology would be great. Coming up with diplomacy and tourism bonuses would not be too difficult--even Civ5 does that with archaeological sites.

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"Not sure what is meant by "meaningful" in this context. Because anomalies have such a wide range of galactic effects depending on map size and frequency settings..."

You're right, I should be a bit clearer. Currently anomalies are meaningful in the sense that they do have an effect, they give your empire some bonuses, but presumably they also give the other empires similar bonuses at roughly the same rate, and this happens largely automatically, you just set one or more explorers off and they do their thing.

It's true that you have to decide how many explorers to have working at once, but they are cheap to build and the decision is little more than an assessment of how big the map is and how many anomalies there are.

Also there are currently separate options for 'explore' and 'survey' I think they are called. One removes the fog of war and the other surveys anomalies. I seems a little irritating that these have to be separate, why can't there be an entry to remove the fog of war and survey any anomalies you find as you go?

What I mean by 'meaningful' isn't that I think anomalies should have a more significant strategic effect, instead I'd like them to add more narrative. Interesting little decisions perhaps with an element of risk, intriguing side quests that kind of thing. Naturally you don't want them to get repetitive, so just have a few of these stories mixed in with the usual anomalies.

GalCiv3 is definitely a huge improvement on GalCiv2, but it's still seems a bit light on narrative. I've pretty much completed the tutorial now. I've blockaded the Drengin homeworld, destroyed all their asteroid mines and their shipyard, but despite this unprovoked aggression on my part they haven't even contacted me once. Why haven't they sent me demands to stop attacking them or threats of retaliation, or offered tribute for me to call off the attack or anything?

Despite all the improvements GC3 still seems a bit sterile, but perhaps this is just the tutorial and the main game is richer. But if not then anomalies seems like one area where this could be easily improved.

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erischild

Join Date 01/2012

+136

The main game is very strictly a sandbox and avoids any direct reference to lore, although there are some here and there. The idea seems to be that you make up your own lore just as much as use theirs, maybe even more with custom factions.

I agree that the anomalies could have more variety. I don't want it to get too generous or game changing, but little bits of Ideology points, random maps, Diplomacy buffs affecting the nearest faction, an administrator point, a pet Space Monster, things that highlight all the different mechanics, old and new, and weave them into the overall game. Also, I always liked the results that gave a sensor or speed boost to the survey fleet. That seems to have been removed. I would probably just reserve it for the survey ship itself and not the whole fleet.

Using your idea of narrative points seems like an excellent basis to expand all event lists, actually. I would limit the anomalies to low weighted priority and smaller effect levels. The larger effects could go into the Galactic events list and be less vulnerable to exploit under Abundant Anomalies/Larger Map settings.

Personally, I think it would be an excellent basis for an Expanded Events and Flavor Text DLC, with "extra snark" option.

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How about this: a new game. Develop an RPG game (a la Freelancer) where you are the captain of the starting survey ship. Your commander gave you the mission to auto-survey, which for you means to boldly go where no man has gone before, to explore anomalies, to run from Dread Lords, all that. It's time that the average Galciv3 player sees all the drama and life-risking that goes into that simple auto-survey command that gives them a few free credits. They think that exploring that anomaly is a simple "+1 treasury, +5 experience", but for you, you just had to explore a hollowed-out precursor warp drive, get attacked by interstellar rats, and transporter-beam back your away team 2 seconds before it all blew up. Oh, the lack of appreciation for what you do.

And then, after you explored everything, you get new orders from your commander: you are being UPGRADED!! They value your experience fighting aliens, and you are no longer a survey ship now; you are a corvette. You need to hunt down enemy trade ships, shoot down lightly-defended planetary invasions, and play a small part in huge fleet battles.

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Quoting erischild,

reply 10

Personally, I think it would be an excellent basis for an Expanded Events and Flavor Text DLC, with "extra snark" option.

I would buy that DLC, especially if it would also introduce state variables with which one could mark progress within a story and the possibility to write such stories as modder.

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erischild

Join Date 01/2012

+136

Quoting lyssailcor,

reply 12

Quoting erischild,

reply 10

Personally, I think it would be an excellent basis for an Expanded Events and Flavor Text DLC, with "extra snark" option.

I would buy that DLC, especially if it would also introduce state variables with which one could mark progress within a story and the possibility to write such stories as modder.

I am looking at flavor dialogue for story telling purposes and game state variables would be useful there, as well.

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