BruntFCA, you are so right. While step 11 is obviously partly humorous, it does take way more time and effort than it should. Beginning players are the worst hit by this, making learning the game that much more fun for newbies. Maybe this is a planned features for us overweight geeks (like myself) to burn off a few more calories while we game?

What could be next for Galactopedia?

Maybe a fleet battle simulator but that would derive from it's original point.

Also maybe the same Shipyard that's incorporated in the game (though that would be a lot of work and the app would be bigger than the actual 68Kb) and could be used to make easier screenshots of your ships.

Also if the techs could be organizable (in the list and description) by color and the background of their names be colored (in the same way as when you want to choose what techs you're going to research).

Finally, thoses pics that (at least for me) don't appear for all the Drives (except Hyperdrive, Hyperdrive + and Ion Drive) should be fixed.

When a picture doesn't appear for an entry, it's either because Stardock's XML data does not specify a picture or because a specific picture could not be found. Also, GC2 itself can render 3D model files; I can only show PNGs or similar bitmap files. Nothing I can do on my side to fix this, unless some Stardock guy would tell me which image files to show for the image-less entries.

As for colored techs, I think the technology icons already correspond to the tech tree colors (more or less). Personally I find text on colored background hard to read... it's a possible enhancement but not a likely one.

A fleet battle simulator is already available as a stand-alone application, please check the GC2 Wiki. Maybe someone will make a stand-alone shipyard, too, but such features are way too big for what I'm doing here.

What I'm going to do next is to refine the interface: add a tree view for technologies, add some help text & "About" box, put radio buttons into nice groups, add hyperlinks to entry text. Also, I still want to add some way to print a reference list. That's the scope of my planned updates for now.

Oh yeah, I forgot: there were several requests that a manually selected GC2 path should be persisted. That's also something I'm planning to do, along with a proper installer/uninstaller.

Keep up the good work, Citizen Chris Nahr !

YES! keep up the good work indeed! maybe someone at stardock WILL tell you where those images are (after all this thread is a sticky).

For the colored background, maybe optional???

and for the tree view (which is great) you could add some little icons on each square (if it is going to look like the tech tree in the game) that would symbolize that a new improvement, module, or ship part is available when this is researched. (oh and change the Galactopedia Icon it's too pixelized)

Finally (maybe optonal as well) could the tech tree expand outwards with one direction corresponding more or less on one color?

thx again for the great program !

I found the missing drive pictures! Their names are stored in XML elements named "Model" rather than "Thumbnail" as usual... duh. The next release checks both elements and shows all drive pictures.

The tree view is going to be a standard Windows tree view control but with some modifications to allow for the long linear research lines in the tech tree. I'll have to think about adding decorations...

As always, you did it. Another greatly appreciated update to a great small app.

Just posting a quick thanks. Knowing the cost of a tech is very useful when trading.

I have downloaded Galactopedia but when I try and run by double clicking it in my C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2 folder I get an application error.
This application failed to initialize properly (0XC0000135). Click Ok to terminate this application.

The app should have a Galactic wonder / trade good / super project button and Ship components should have multiple size that would depend on your Miniaturization skill.

This application failed to initialize properly (0XC0000135). Click Ok to terminate this application

Do you have the .NET Framework 2.0 installed? Use Windows Update to get it.

Here's something I like to see added....

I like to be able to get a list of what components I need in order to build a ship.

I've got a line of ships that I've designed each one an upgrade of the one before. Unless I have all the needed research done the ship doesn't show up. If I check the techtree it tells me I need (for eample) laser 1, laser 2, and laser 3 even though this particule ship has been upgraded to use only laser 3. But the techtree doesn't mention that I also need minituration 2 or such. So If I could print a clean list a of what I need to research in order to build both core and user ships that would be great.

Havic

how do I know which version of .NET to get. I am on XP .

x86, x64 or IA64?

Use Windows Update, that should pick the right version. If you get offered different versions choose x86. That's almost certainly the correct version for you.

Galactopedia needs in my opinion to be improved in this sectors:
-Abilities description and effect in game
-major race description and default abilities

anyway great job!

Sooo... any new ideas, Chris Nahr?
By the way, maybe the Galactopedia should be posted in the Library.

Considering the comments I got on my hand-coded data tables, I'd say that if there was some way to add an option to present the ship parts info in tabular format, we'd have one pretty much perfect GalCiv data-viewing program.

Peace & Luv, Liz

Chris Nahr, here's a link Link . Maybe we should be able to load up small map of a save game to which we could add arrows, letters, etc. (Like the BF2 ATC (Link)

Thank you very much for this wonderfull program!!

Version 1.3.0 is now up. This one has a real installer/uninstaller, real documentation, and a bunch of new features: printing, searching, persistent user settings etc. I've also split Improvements into Planetary Improvements, Galactic Achievements, and Trade Goods, as suggested above.

By and large I consider the program feature-complete now. Of course I'll stand by for bug fixes and compatibilty issues with new GC2 patches but I don't think I'll add anything major from now on.

Thank you, Chris. I'm amazed at what you've accomplished with this program. I am unworthy! But I'll take it anyway.

This is most useful for study purposes when you cannot play the game. For me, I will read up with this from work.

One feature request that I have is that some techs have an additional alignment requirement that is not indicated in the utility. I think that it might be nice to see this as a prerequisite of the technology. These are signified by the

Thanks, Tarlynn! I had completely overlooked the alignment requirements. They'll be in the next update.